Real Estate Litigation Archives

Quiet Title Primer

What happens when there is a civil action filed with the intent to settle title disputes to a property? This will be resolved in the civil court system through a cause of action called “quiet title”. Quiet title occurs in sitautions when there is a disagreement as to who is the legal title owner of real property, or when there were liens on property that the owner believes shouldn’t be there. Sometimes this happens because there are liens that were recorded and never removed, other times it happens when someone was supposed to be placed on title, but they never […]

Guide on Earnest Money Disputes

by Elena Rivkin

There are two main standardized forms used in California for real estate transactions. The forms cover a range of issues including what conditions must be met before a transaction can be finalized, to specifics on fees, to guidelines on what will happen during a dispute regarding the purchase or sale. The two most widely used purchase contracts are the PRDS (Peninsula Regional Data Service) purchase agreement and the CAR (California Association of Realtors) purchase agreement. Earnest money disputes arise after a buyer has provided their initial deposit, which is generally 3% of the purchase price, into escrow. If there is […]

What is a Partition Action?

by Elena Rivkin

In California, if you own real property with someone else, you have a statutory right to sell it – this act of forcing someone to sell real property through the courts is a cause of action called Partition. Regardless of how you hold title, whether it is as joint tenants, tenants in common, community property, as a trustee of a trust, – if you are unable to agree to sell the property together, you can go to the court and petition for this to occur. This situation might arise if you purchased property with relatives or business partners, […]