Three siblings inherit their parents’ Fort Lauderdale home. One wants to sell immediately, one wants to rent it out, and the third wants to move in. No one agrees. The mortgage is still being paid, property taxes are stacking up, and someone has been living there rent-free for six months. This is exactly the situation Florida’s partition statute was designed to resolve.
Under Chapter 64, Florida Statutes, any co-owner of real property can file a partition action to force either a physical division of the land or a court-ordered sale. For a single-family home, condo, or townhouse — the kind of property most people actually own together — partition almost always means a forced sale. The court divides the net proceeds according to each owner’s interest, adjusted for who paid what over the years.
You don’t need everyone’s agreement. You don’t need to prove wrongdoing. If you’re a legal co-owner and you want out, Florida law gives you the right to force the issue.
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Who Can Actually File a Partition Action?
You need legal title. Not just an interest in the property — actual recorded ownership as a joint tenant, tenant in common, or coparcener under Section 64.031.
Here’s who qualifies:
- Siblings who inherited property together
- Unmarried couples who bought a home with both names on the deed
- Business partners or investors holding fractional interests
- Anyone whose name appears on the recorded deed as a co-owner
Here’s who doesn’t:
- Tenants or occupants without title
- Ex-spouses with a “marital interest” but no recorded ownership
That last one surprises people. In Vega v. Jaramillo, decided by Florida’s Sixth District Court of Appeal in 2026, an ex-wife tried to file a partition action after her divorce decree classified the home as marital property. The court threw it out. She had no legal title — just a marital classification in a dissolution judgment. Florida’s partition statute requires you to be a “joint tenant, tenant in common, or coparcener.” A divorce decree calling property “marital” doesn’t create joint title.
If you went through a divorce and the final judgment says you have an interest in the house but your name isn’t on the deed, partition isn’t your remedy. You need to enforce the divorce decree through contempt or a separate action for specific performance. Partition only works when you’re already on title.
Partition Is a Matter of Right (With Narrow Exceptions)
Florida courts treat partition as mandatory once you meet the statutory requirements. In Dominguez v. Suarez, a 2026 case, the court said partition “is a matter of right for co-owners of indivisible property and may only be denied where manifest injustice, fraud, oppression, waiver or estoppel exists.”
That’s a high bar for the other side. They can’t defeat your partition action just because they don’t want to sell. They need to prove one of those narrow equitable defenses.
Waiver is the most common. Say you and your business partner bought an investment property together and signed an operating agreement that prohibits either of you from forcing a sale for five years. That’s enforceable. Courts will honor clear contractual restrictions on partition rights. But if there’s no written agreement — which is the case in most inheritance and breakup situations — waiver doesn’t apply.
Estoppel requires proof that you took actions that led the other co-owner to reasonably rely on your promise not to partition, and they were harmed as a result. That’s fact-intensive and hard to prove. “We talked about keeping the house in the family” isn’t estoppel.
Fraud and manifest injustice are even harder. You’re looking at situations where one co-owner actively concealed information or manipulated the other into giving up their interest, or where the equities are so one-sided that a sale would be unconscionable. These defenses rarely succeed.
The practical takeaway: if you’re a co-owner on the deed and you want to force a sale, you’re probably going to win. The other side can make it expensive and time-consuming, but they can’t stop it.
Partition in Kind vs. Partition by Sale
Florida law technically prefers partition in kind — physically dividing the property into separate parcels that correspond to each owner’s share. Section 64.031 expresses that preference. But it’s almost never feasible for residential property.
You can’t cut a three-bedroom house in Coral Springs in half. You can’t divide a condo unit. Even with vacant land, partition in kind only works when the property is large enough that dividing it wouldn’t destroy its value or violate zoning requirements.
So here’s what actually happens. The court appoints commissioners — often local real estate professionals or attorneys — to evaluate the property and determine whether partition in kind is possible without prejudice to the owners. For a single-family home, the answer is always no. The commissioners report back that the property is indivisible, and the court orders a sale.
The sale process looks like this: the court authorizes listing the property on the open market through a licensed Florida real estate agent. Sometimes the court orders a public auction or sealed-bid sale, but most judges prefer an MLS listing because it tends to generate higher prices. The court sets a minimum price or reserve based on appraisals, approves the listing agreement and marketing plan, and requires court approval before the final contract is executed.
Once a buyer is found and the contract is signed, the sale closes like any other Broward County real estate transaction. The proceeds go into the court registry, and then the real work begins.
The Accounting Phase Changes Everything
Most people assume partition means the sale price gets split according to ownership percentages. Two co-owners, 50-50 split. Three heirs, each gets a third. That’s wrong.
Partition is an equitable proceeding. Before the court distributes net proceeds, it performs an accounting to determine who paid what and who owes what. This can dramatically shift the final numbers.
Say two siblings inherit a house as equal tenants in common. One has been living there rent-free for three years while the other paid the full mortgage, property taxes, and insurance. The sibling who paid gets a credit for those expenses before the proceeds are divided. The sibling who lived there rent-free may owe an offset for the fair rental value of their occupancy.
Other common credits and setoffs:
- Major repairs or improvements paid by one co-owner (new roof, HVAC replacement, foundation work)
- Property taxes and insurance paid disproportionately
- Mortgage payments made solely by one owner when both were obligated
- Rental income collected by one owner and not shared
Courts don’t automatically grant every claimed credit. You need documentation. Canceled checks, wire transfer records, contractor invoices, mortgage statements showing who made the payments. The co-owner seeking the credit has the burden of proof.
The flip side: courts won’t credit you for routine maintenance or improvements that only benefited you. If you lived in the house and painted the walls or landscaped the yard, that’s for your own benefit. You don’t get a credit for that.
The equitable accounting can take months. Each side submits detailed financial records, often going back years. Disputes over what qualifies as a creditable expense get litigated. By the time the court issues a final judgment distributing the proceeds, the 50-50 split might be 65-35 or 70-30.
Special Rules for Inherited Property
Florida adopted the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, codified in Sections 64.201 through 64.214. It applies when:
- The property is held as a tenancy in common
- Ownership was acquired from a relative, usually through intestate succession or a will
- There’s no written co-ownership agreement governing partition
If your case qualifies as “heirs property,” the process changes. The court must order an appraisal. Then the non-filing co-owners get 45 days to buy out the filing co-owner’s interest at the appraised value. This gives family members who want to keep the property a chance to purchase the other heirs’ shares rather than losing the home to a forced sale.
Say three siblings inherit their parents’ Plantation home. One files for partition. The court orders an appraisal that comes back at $450,000. The other two siblings have 45 days to buy out the filing sibling’s one-third interest for $150,000. If they can secure financing or pool resources, they can keep the house. If they can’t, the partition sale moves forward.
This buyout window is mandatory in heirs property cases. Courts can’t skip it. The filing co-owner can’t refuse a buyout offer that meets the appraised value. The statute is designed to keep inherited family property in the family when possible.
But if no one exercises the buyout right — which happens often because $150,000 in cash is hard to come up with on short notice — the case proceeds like any other partition action. The court evaluates whether partition in kind is feasible (it’s not, for a house), appoints commissioners, and orders a sale.
Homestead Doesn’t Protect You From Partition
Florida’s homestead exemption under Article X, Section 4 of the state constitution protects your primary residence from creditors. It doesn’t protect you from a co-owner’s partition action.
Case law is clear on this. The homestead exemption “does not operate at the expense of others owning interests in the property.” If you and someone else both own the home — whether you’re siblings, unmarried partners, or investors — your co-owner can force partition even if the property is your homestead.
Here’s an even less intuitive scenario. Say you own a homestead property as tenants in common with your sibling. Your creditor can’t force the sale of the entire property because of your homestead protection. But the creditor can levy on and sell your undivided interest to a third party. That third-party buyer becomes a cotenant with your sibling. And then the third party can file a partition action to force the sale of the entire property.
Your homestead exemption protected you from your own creditor forcing a sale. It didn’t protect your sibling from ending up with a new co-owner who immediately files partition. This is one of the stranger wrinkles in Florida real estate law, and it catches people off guard.
The Procedural Reality of a Partition Case
Partition actions are filed in the circuit court of the county where the property sits. For Broward County property, that’s the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit. Venue is mandatory — you can’t file in Miami-Dade just because that’s where you live if the property is in Fort Lauderdale.
The complaint must include the legal description of the property (pulled from the recorded deed), the names and residences of all co-owners, and each owner’s exact fractional interest. You need to join all co-owners as defendants so their rights can be adjudicated in one proceeding. Miss a co-owner and the judgment isn’t binding on them.
After filing and service, defendants typically have 20 days to respond. They can contest your ownership percentage, raise defenses like waiver or estoppel, or argue that the case qualifies as heirs property under the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act. They can’t just say “I don’t want to sell.” That’s not a defense.
Courts often appoint commissioners early in the case. The commissioners inspect the property, evaluate whether in-kind division is feasible, and file a report with the court. For a residential home, the report will say partition in kind isn’t possible and recommend a sale. The judge reviews the report, hears any objections, and enters a judgment of partition ordering the sale.
Then comes the sale process. The court approves a listing agent, sets a reserve price based on appraisals, and establishes a marketing period. Once a contract is signed, it goes back to the court for approval. After closing, the proceeds go into the court registry.
The accounting phase follows. Each side submits claims for credits and offsets. The court holds hearings if the claims are disputed. Finally — often 12 to 18 months after the original complaint was filed — the court enters a final judgment distributing the net proceeds.
Costs add up. Filing fees, service of process, commissioners’ fees, appraisal costs, real estate commissions, and attorneys’ fees. Florida courts have discretion to allocate costs and fees equitably, but each side typically bears their own attorney fees unless there’s a fee-shifting provision in a co-ownership agreement or one party acted in bad faith.
When Partition Runs Parallel to Other Disputes
Partition actions don’t happen in a vacuum. They often overlap with probate, divorce, and landlord-tenant issues.
In probate, heirs sometimes file partition before the estate is fully administered. That’s premature. The personal representative controls estate assets until distribution. Once the property is distributed to heirs and recorded deeds show them as co-owners, then partition is available.
In divorce, partition usually isn’t necessary because the dissolution court has jurisdiction to divide marital property and order transfers or sales. But if the divorce decree is silent on a property, or if one spouse’s name was never added to the deed, you can end up with co-ownership issues that require partition after the divorce is final.
Landlord-tenant issues arise when co-owned property is rented out and the co-owners disagree about management. One co-owner can’t unilaterally evict tenants or terminate a lease without the other co-owners’ consent. But a partition action can force the sale of rental property even with tenants in place. The property sells subject to the lease, and the new owner inherits the tenant. This sometimes depresses the sale price, which is another issue that gets hashed out in the equitable accounting.
Whether you are buying a home, dealing with a landlord dispute, or recovering from an injury, Eric Goldman can help. Serving clients throughout Florida.
What You Should Do Before Filing
Partition litigation is expensive and slow. If there’s any chance of a negotiated resolution, try that first. Mediation often works in co-ownership disputes because both sides face the same risks — high legal fees, an uncertain timeline, and a sale price that might be lower than a voluntary listing because of the partition cloud on title.
Buyout negotiations are worth pursuing even if the other side initially refused. People’s positions shift once they understand that partition is mandatory and they can’t block it. Offering to buy out the other co-owner at a fair appraised value — or proposing that the other side buy you out — can resolve the case in weeks instead of a year.
If you’re entering a co-ownership arrangement, put it in writing. A co-ownership agreement can specify how decisions get made, what happens if one owner wants out, whether partition rights are restricted or waived for a period of time, and how expenses and income are shared. These agreements are enforceable and can prevent partition litigation entirely.
But if negotiation fails and you’re stuck in a co-ownership that isn’t working, partition is your statutory remedy. Florida law gives you the right to force the issue. The other side can make it difficult, but they can’t stop it.
File in the circuit court where the property is located. Bring clean title evidence, documentation of who paid what over time, and a realistic understanding that the case will take a year or more to resolve. The court will order a sale, perform an equitable accounting, and distribute the net proceeds. You’ll get your money, and the co-ownership will end.
