Montana Complaint regarding Partition of Property

When owners of jointly owned property can't agree on the sale of the entire property, a partition lawsuit to force its sale may be filed. In a partition lawsuit, the court can order the sale of the entire property and divide proceeds among its owners.

Filing a petition to partition Typically, a "lis pendens," or default notice, is also filed at the same time as the petition. This document simply notifies everyone who has been named in the partition action that the lawsuit is being filed.

To initiate a partition in kind, one co-owner must petition the court to split the property into smaller pieces. Rights, titles, interests, easements, zoning regulations, and more all go into a partition in kind, and complex negotiations between all co-owners are attempted to reach a common settlement.

It generally takes about a year and half to two years to get to trial on a partition action.

You can hire a trust litigation attorney to litigate a partition action. Your attorney may fight to increase the value of your share of the property if, for example, you paid for maintenance, repairs, improvements, property taxes, mortgage payments, etc.

As a rule a Partition action will take about one year to get to trial from the time of filing the complaint. Most Partition actions settle along the way. Sometimes within a month sometimes on the eve of trial.

You can hire a trust litigation attorney to litigate a partition action. Your attorney may fight to increase the value of your share of the property if, for example, you paid for maintenance, repairs, improvements, property taxes, mortgage payments, etc.