Los Angeles Real Estate Litigation Lawyer

Lawsuits and legal actions are complicated in any context, but the stakes are high for individuals and entities facing the prospect of real estate litigation. Countless issues can arise related to ownership or title, and those can hinder one’s rights to possess, use, or sell real property. Other issues arise when joint ownership affords those rights to multiple people, and each person has a different idea on how to use or sell the property. In other cases, an owner’s rights may be enforced or affected by various liens, such as a lis pendens.

Comprehensive Real Estate Litigation

Considering the wide range of ownership issues, interests, parties, and other factors involved in disputes over property, there are numerous types of lawsuits that can arise with both residential and commercial properties with various disputes, such as:

• Disputes over property lines and boundaries;
• Disagreements regarding easements;
• Partition actions, which involve splitting up the interests of joint owners who disagree over the disposition of real property;
• Partnership or ownership disputes arising between co-owners or over co-ownership of the same property;
• Failed purchase and sale agreements; and
• Contract disputes, such as commercial leases, or project management or other improvement agreements.

Breach of Contract Involving Real Estate

When property is the subject of an agreement, disputes may involve legal concepts behind contract law and real estate matters. One of the most common disputes is breach of contract to buy and sell land, since there are numerous terms and conditions included in the agreement. Another factor that complicates breach of purchase agreements is that there may be multiple parties with varying interests.

Partition Actions

Co-owners of real property have an absolute right to seek partition (or division) of the property when they cannot agree on how to use or dispose of the property, unless the owner has waived the right to seek partition.

At Litigation, P.C., we have successfully represented parties in partition actions arising from various circumstances, from family members who purchased property together, to partnerships that failed in flipping real estate.

Quiet Title Actions

A quiet title action is used to resolve disputes over the ownership of real property. The need arises when there are competing claims of ownership or a defect in title. The result is to “quiet” any challenges to your title or ownership of the property.

These issues can arise when there is a defective recording on title, or when third parties record invalid or late claims to the property.

Clouded Title

A clouded title is when there are unresolved claims, defects, or ambiguities in the ownership history of a property. An action to remove a cloud on title seeks to invalidate a particular instrument.

Easement Disputes

An easement dispute commonly arises when a new neighbor moves in, but sometimes, even long-standing neighbors who have acknowledged the existence of an implied easement suddenly decide they no longer want to let their neighbors use an easement.

An implied or prescriptive easement is the nonexclusive right of use of another’s property for a particular purpose, such as a walkway or pathway. In California, a prescriptive easement requires establishing that the plaintiff used the property for such purpose, continuously and uninterrupted for a period of five years, that such usage was open and easily observable, and that the plaintiff did not have permission to use the land.

Lis Pendens

A lis pendens or “notice of pendency of legal action” is a legal notice recorded with the county to indicate there is a pending lawsuit concerning the property. It provides notice to potential buyers or lenders that the ownership of the property is in dispute.

Because a lis pendens clouds title, it is sometimes exploited for improper purposes since it can prevent the sale or refinance of a property. When this happens, a motion to expunge a lis pendens may be necessary.

Remedies in Real Estate Litigation

There are various options available in a real estate dispute, so an aggrieved party may be entitled to monetary damages to cover financial losses. However, California law also provides equitable remedies, where the court orders one party to take certain action. For example, in a breach of a sales or purchase agreement, the court may order specific performance, and force the buyer to sell the property.