Like a 7/10 Split

It's Friday, everyone. You may commence the rejoicing.

Before I get to today's topic, a quick update. No sooner do I settle into my new digs than some old partners of mine who formed a very-well respected firm have asked me to come over and help them out with all the new work. They have offered to let me keep my clients and continue to do business the way I want to with them. Any thoughts? Team up? Stay on my own? I'm particularly interested in hearing from you, the nice people who have been good enough to hire me in the last few months.

Ok, on to business.

This is a good one for you folks out there who took advantage of the real estate market while it was hot. You got together with a few friends or people you knew and you made a few investments. You are all partial owners of a few parcels of land and even an apartment building or two. Well, it's now the summer of '09 and your "partners" are all broke. They are falling behind on the payments and expenses. Before foreclosure becomes imminent - or you just get tired of supporting everyone, you do have an option.

You can seek partition of the property. That's right, Florida law allows you to sue to "divide" property (be it real or personal). You file a lawsuit and a demonstration has to be made that the property can or cannot be divided. If the court finds that the property is divisible among the various owners, it can realign the parties' interests so that their respective shares are held individually by each of the parties to the lawsuit. If the property is not divisible, the court can order that the property be sold and the parties paid according to the size of their ownership share.

You don't see too much of this in practice and I really don't know why other than it seems people don't seek out legal assistance until it's too late. A partition is also the means by which unmarried people and gay couples often divide assets after ending long-term relationships. Because we do not recognize gay marriage, the partition is, in fact, the only means by which same sex couples can access the courts to divide up their property. And, yes, I have handled a couple of these.