Aaron Tschoepe
Writing Assignment #3
Right to Partition (#5) Some people often buy land through advertisements they find in magazines and even newspapers that make the price seem like a great deal. What these people do not realize is that the land may not be sold to them as their own personal property, leaving them powerless to claim their land; however, the land is sold to them and also a number of other individuals and property rights are split among them equally. This sharing of property is undivided interest which means that all sharers have an equal right to build and use the land as if they did own it. Unfortunately, after the land is purchased it may be difficult to undo. In most cases, the right to partition the property is the answer to this problem. Partitioning property is basically the only means to accumulate a portion of the land with outright ownership in order to sell it to a third party or to sell it as a whole. There are two main types of partitions. The first is partition in kind and the second is partition by sale. A partition in kind is usually the default method of property negotiations because courts prefer this route. In this partition, courts attempt to physically divide the property instead of pushing a sale. If one or more owners file for partition of property, the court will pursue a partition in kind unless physical division of property seems impossible or not of best interest. For example, if a wife and husband divorced it would be fairly simple to split the property between them; on the other hand, if business owners were to partition the property, it would make little sense to follow a partition in kind because it is not logical to cut the land, often being a organizational structure or building, in half. In this instance, the court would refrain from a partition in kind and move to the alternative, a partition by sale. A partition by sale is usually conducted when the property is not easily divided into separate parts or even when it is not profitable to divide the property because the value of the pieces of property would become rather low considering the property as a whole. A partition by sale will be ordered if it protects the interests of all owners of the land. When this type of partition is necessary, the land as a whole is sold either at a public auction or private sale depending on the courts judgment. Once the land is sold for a reasonable and adequate price, profits are then equally split between all owners of the land or in proportion to the interests of the respective sharers.