Co-ownership of real estate works beautifully until it does not. When two or more people own property together and cannot agree on what to do with it, Florida provides an exit: the partition action under Chapter 64, Florida Statutes. Partition is the lawsuit that divides jointly owned property or, far more commonly, forces its sale and divides the proceeds.
The situations that produce partition cases repeat themselves. Siblings inherit a house and one wants to sell while another wants to keep it. An unmarried couple buys a home together and then separates, with no divorce court available to untangle the ownership. Investment partners fall out. One co-owner occupies the property and refuses to sell, while the others pay taxes on land they cannot use. In each case, partition is the pressure valve.
Two features of partition law surprise people. The first is that partition is generally a matter of right. A co-owner does not need a good reason to demand it, and a judge has little discretion to refuse it out of sympathy for the co-owner who wants to stay. The right can be waived, but Florida courts require a real agreement or conduct amounting to one. In Condrey v. Condrey, 92 So. 2d 423 (Fla. 1957), the Florida Supreme Court refused to allow a partition where the parties had effectively agreed the property would be held for their lifetimes. Absent that kind of agreement, the right to partition prevails.
The second surprise is who may bring the action. Partition belongs to co-owners with a present right to possession. A remainderman under a life estate deed cannot force a sale while the life tenant is alive, and a life tenant cannot force one against the remaindermen, because they do not hold the property as cotenants of the same estate. The partition fight, if there is one, waits until the life estate ends and the remaindermen hold the property together as tenants in common.
Florida also softened the harshest edge of partition law in 2020 by adopting the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, sections 64.201 through 64.221, Florida Statutes. When family members inherit property from a common ancestor, the act gives cotenants who want to keep the property the right to buy out the interest of the cotenant seeking partition at an appraised value, and it favors open market sales over courthouse auctions when a sale must occur. It exists because forced auction sales of inherited family land historically fetched poor prices and fell hardest on families without estate plans.
In my experience, the filing of a partition case, or the credible threat of one, is what finally produces the family agreement that years of conversation could not. The law prefers that co-owners resolve these matters themselves, but it does not require anyone to remain a co-owner forever, and that quiet fact shapes every negotiation.
This article is provided for general information only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every situation is different, and you should consult a Florida attorney about your specific circumstances.
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