Riverside Partition Lawyers

Riverside is the county seat and largest city in Riverside County, only sixty miles east of Los Angeles, and received its name due to its location beside the Santa Ana River. The city is home to the World’s Largest Paper Cup, a giant concrete Dixie Cup. Riverside residents are susceptible to the same struggles when dealing with joint real estate owners as the rest of Californians – disagreement. It is not uncommon for joint tenants to disagree on what to do with their shared property, whether to keep or sell it, especially in today’s rising market. Fortunately, a Riverside Partition Attorney can tell you that the California Code of Civil Procedure allows a co-owner to escape these situations through the legal remedy of partition.

There are at least four other scenarios where a Riverside Partition Lawyer can be helpful:

• Investor-Investor co-ownership of property; 
• Boyfriend-Girlfriend co-ownership of property; 
• Sibling-Sibling co-ownership of property; and
• Parent-Child co-ownership of property

Real property consisting of several distinct parcels or tracts of land, and situated in different counties, may be joined in a single partition action. (Murphy v. Superior Court (1902) 138 Cal. 69, 72, 70 P. 1070.) Generally, however, each parcel of land must be owned by the same persons to justify such union in one suit. [see Middelcoff v. Cronise (1909) 155 Cal. 185, 189, 100 P. 232]. On the other hand, there is a universally accepted doctrine that one cotenant cannot by a conveyance of his or her interest in a portion of the property held in common prejudice the rights of his or her cotenants.

In such a case, the successor in interest of such an owner simply steps into the shoes of his or her predecessor, with all the same rights and limitations. In a partition action, the whole property originally held in common by the cotenants, whether consisting of one or any number of parcels, continues to be a unit—the subject matter of a single action—just as if no change in the ownership had occurred. This means that a grantee may be a necessary party defendant even though a cotenant only as to one of the parcels involved; the fact that he or she is not interested in the other parcels is no ground of objection to the joinder in one action of the various parcels of land. There is but one cause of action stated, the partition of a single lot of real property originally held in common, and, for all purposes of the partition

Although disagreement between joint owners of property is common in partition actions, a Riverside Partition Attorney will tell you that it is not a requirement for the action. For example, a sibling may file a partition action against another sibling and cause the sale of their shared property even though they have a great relationship. Such is permissible so long as both siblings are co-owners of the property.

At the Underwood Law Firm, our Riverside Partition Lawyers are excellent resources for understanding your rights as a joint owner of real estate and are ready to assist your partition needs.