Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Florida
My Sister, Brother and I are half-owners in a Beach Front Home in Panama City Beach, FL. Our aunt is the other half-owner in the property. For about the last ten years our Aunt has had sole control of the property and has been renting it out and collecting all the proceeds from the rentals for herself. We have never seen any proceeds from the rentals or any records showing how much money she has collected from renting the property. We are seldom able to use the property ourselves because she keeps it rented out. (we have used it about 4 weeks in 10 years) It has recently come to our attention that she has not kept the property taxes paid on the property.
Is there any way that we could assume control of the property ourselves to assure any rental proceeds are equally divided and that the Property Taxes are paid?
Is there any way that we can force a sale of the property?
And is there any way we can force her to document her past rentals/proceeds?
Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated
2 Answers from Attorneys
Yes. The suit is called a partition, in which the court will order the property sold, usually at the court house unless the parties settle and do it themselves, and then orders the proceeds to be split, according to the ownership of the property. However, the split can be affected by an accounting of the property, which demonstrates whether she kept money from you that was due to you.
You could consider hiring an attorney to draft a letter to your Aunt to request the accounting you should have received from her about rental income ,taxes,insurance,etc.This would set the stage to file a partition action as described in the last answer.I have represented clients in these cases before.IF you would like my help e-mail me your phone number to discuss this further.
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