Partition: When You Own Property Together and Can’t Even Agree on Pizza

This is the first in a series of articles on partition in Florida.

The most common circumstances causing partition are siblings left owning deceased parents’ houses or romantic partners that purchased a house together.

Owning property with someone else can be great — until it isn’t. Maybe you and a sibling inherited a house. Maybe you bought a vacation place with a friend who now wants out. Maybe your business partner has become your former business partner. When co-owners stop seeing eye-to-eye, Florida law has a built-in solution called a partition.

A partition is a legal process that lets a co-owner of property force a division of that property when the owners can’t agree on what to do with it. If you own property with someone else, and you want out — but they don’t — you don’t have to be stuck forever. Florida law says you generally have the absolute right to partition jointly owned property. That means you can ask the court to step in and untangle the ownership.

The common theme? One person wants to sell or divide the property, and the other person says “no.”

Florida courts generally handle partition by ordering the property sold, and the proceeds are divided among the owners based on their ownership interests. After paying things like mortgages, taxes, and approved expenses, everyone gets their share of the remaining money.

Can One Owner Really Force a Sale?

Yes.

In Florida, any co-owner can usually force a partition, even if the other owners strongly object. You don’t need permission. You don’t need a “good reason.” Wanting out is enough. This surprises a lot of people — but it’s intentional. The law does not want people trapped in permanent co-ownership. Of course the Court will also have to account for who paid what, i.e., the mortgage, the property taxes, and the insurance. Those amounts can be credited or debited when the sale proceeds are divided.

Once the Property is sold and Plaintiff has been reimbursed amounts paid, the remaining proceeds divided interest among the co-owners. After a sale . . . “the money arising from such sale paid into the court to be divided among the parties in proportion to their interest.” §64.071, Fla. Stat.

But do you have options if you don’t want to sell? 

It depends.

Sometimes the mere existence of a lawsuit or informing a co-owner of the possibility of partition is enough to turn “absolutely not” into “okay, let’s talk.”  

But where it is undisputed that the house cannot be physically divided, the trial court has three options for ordering a partition sale: (1) a judicial sale by public auction under §64.071, (2) a private sale conducted by the clerk or a magistrate under section §64.061(4), or (3) a private sale based on the stipulation of the parties. Marks v. Stein, 160 So. 3d 502, 508 (Fla. 2d DCA 2015).  

That last choice – stipulation by the parties – is where we see most the most benefit. If co-owners can agree, each owner can achieve far more value and end up in a win-win situation.