If you have ever owned property as a tenant in common, you understand how difficult dealing with issues pertaining to the jointly owned property can be when dealing with multiple owners. The question is how to end the common ownership. The answer is through a proceeding known as a Partition action.

A Partition is a special proceeding filed before the clerk in the county in which the property is located to request that the court divide the co-owned property based upon the fact that the owners cannot agree on a division. All of the co-owners of the property are named in the action and summoned to appear before the clerk. The clerk will hold a hearing to determine whether the property can be equitably divided or whether the property must be sold. In the event that the clerk determines that the property can be divided, the clerk appoints 3 commissioners to meet and divide the property. The commissioners can consider a number of factors in making their determination of how to divide the property. In the event that the clerk determines that the property cannot be divided without substantially injuring one of the interested parties, the court can order that the property be sold.

If joint owners cannot agree on how to manage jointly owned property, a partition action may be the answer to resolve the differences among the joint owners and terminate the joint ownership.