As stated in previous blog articles, Richardson "Red" Griswold is commonly appointed by courts in San Diego, Orange and Los Angeles Counties to act as partition referee to sell real estate that is at the center of a dispute between two or more co-owners. Typically, after co-owners are unable to resolve their ownership disputes related to their jointly-owned property, one co-owner will file a partition lawsuit and request that the judge appoint a partition referee to act as a neutral third party to sell the property and split the proceeds between the disputing co-owners (referred to as a "partition by sale," which is the most common partition remedy).
Co-owners of property in California find many things to argue about. One issue that comes up often is where two co-owners (perhaps even a now-divorced couple) jointly purchased a property and both applied for and obtained a purchase money loan to pay for the property. The dispute arises when the co-owners disagree later as to who is responsible for making payments on the loan. Further, the dispute begins to really heat up when there is a failure to keep current with the mortgage payments, therefore leading to a negative impact on their respective credit reports. Under these facts, I typically see a co-owner resort to filing the partition lawsuit to seek the appointment of a partition referee to sell the property and thereby eliminate the delinquent loan obligation.
For more information on partition lawsuits and the appointment of a partition referee in California, please contact Griswold Law.
