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Law Question

Posted on 9/13/18 at 8:38 am
Posted by huntfish26
Member since Jan 2016
48 posts
Posted on 9/13/18 at 8:38 am
A farm is owned by multiple people (more than 6). It is a joint venture. 55% of the ownership interests want to sell. 45% of ownership doesn't want to sell. The ownership is in undivided shares.

Can the selling party force a sale of the entire farm? Does the non-selling party have any option to partition off a piece of the farm if the selling party doesn't want them to?

How does the law work in this situation?
Posted by brian_wilson
Member since Oct 2016
3581 posts
Posted on 9/13/18 at 9:01 am to
Pay a lawyer to help you out, I wouldn't trust internet advice on this one.
Posted by Ex-Popcorn
Member since Nov 2005
2143 posts
Posted on 9/13/18 at 9:12 am to
quote:

A farm is owned by multiple people (more than 6). It is a joint venture. 55% of the ownership interests want to sell. 45% of ownership doesn't want to sell.


To many unanswered questions here. What do you mean by joint venture? Is there a formal JV agreement? That would determine what rights the parties have. Or are you just calling it a joint venture because multiple people own the land. Are you talking about selling land? or an actual farming operation while still owning the land?
Posted by Twenty 49
Shreveport
Member since Jun 2014
18821 posts
Posted on 9/13/18 at 9:13 am to
This title company has a decent summary:

quote:

In general, any co-owner, regardless of percentage of ownership, has the right to demand partition. ...

Two kinds of court-ordered partitions exist: partitions in kind and partitions by licitation.

A partition in kind occurs when property can be divided into lots of equal value, and the sum of the value of the lots is not significantly lower than the value of the whole.

Partition by licitation occurs when partition in kind is not possible. In this instance, the property is sold at public auction and the proceeds distributed in accordance with the interest percentages of the co-owners. Courts strongly favor partition in kind. Co-owners are also free to agree between themselves to partition property, either in kind or by licitation.
LINK

If you can't agree how to divide it or sell it, it'll turn to shite. Few if any will be happy with how a judge decides to divide it up. (Damn it, he gave me the piece that floods.) And a public sale ordered by the court won't likely bring in anywhere near the market value, unless a couple of co-owners get in a bidding war.

It is always better to work it out, but there's almost always one crazy cousin who makes it impossible.

Co-ownership without some form of governing agreement is often a nightmare. Everyone is at the mercy of the biggest idiot or a-hole in the group, even if the idiot has just 1%.

****

This all assumes it is just co-owned by the individuals, and not in an LLC, partnership, joint venture agreement, or other formal agreement. If there is some form of entity or agreement, its terms and the applicable law will govern.

This post was edited on 9/13/18 at 9:16 am
Posted by geauxpurple
New Orleans
Member since Jul 2014
12489 posts
Posted on 9/13/18 at 9:14 am to
Any co owner can file a suit to have the property partitioned. If the parties cannot come to any other agreement (which they should) then the end result would be that the property would be sold to the highest bidder at a sheriff's sale. This should be the last resort because it is expensive and a sheriff's sale is definitely not the way to get top dollar for the property.
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