A partition action is one brought under chapter 64 of Florida Statutes. It is brought when there are multiple co-owners of a piece of property who cannot decide what to do with the property. In a partition action, the court can divide the property up among the various co-owners or the court can order the property be sold and the money divided among the co-owners.
Partition cases are often necessary when the co-owners of a property do not get along or cannot agree as to how to use the property that they own together. These cases are equitable in nature and seek to use the Court’s nature of fairness in addition to the laws on the issue.
Recently, Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal overturned a case where, there being no money left after the sale of the property and the mortgage payoff, the trial court ordered that one of the parties was to pay the other party to offset their costs for maintaining the property. The Appellate Court stated that the money judgment was not allowed in the partition case as it is not authorized by the statute. The Court stated that the Court could only apportion the sale proceeds and could not enter money judgments.
Should you have an issue with those that you own property with, please contact attorney Nathan Meloon or a member of our Widerman Malek Real Estate team.
