re: Law Question

This title company has a decent summary:

quote:

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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.

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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%.

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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.