With the current Real Estate climate in Nashville and Tennessee as a whole we are asked many different types of issues regarding the sale, purchase and ownership of real estate in Tennessee. One of the most often seen issues that we come by at Lackey | McDonald, PLLC is that of real estate partition.
Partition of real property occurs in Tennessee when there are multiple owners of a piece of property in Tennessee where one or more wishes to sell their interest in the property. Partition is a legal word for separate, or in the real estate context to separate ownership from the other owners. One of the many ways partition issues arise is when real estate ownership is transferred from a parent or relative at their death and multiple parties inherit the property through the Estate or by operation of law.
Tennessee law provides that the property may be disposed of in the following ways: it may be divided amongst the owners, i.e. truly partitioned into separate tracts, where each owner would then own a separate and designated tract; sold by all of the property owners and proceeds distributed pursuant to the ownership of the property; or one or more of the property owners can purchase the other owners interest at a price agreeable to owners.
Most often, the property is purchased by one of the owners and the others are compensated for their interest or the property is sold and the proceeds distributed among all the owners. As we all know, that property value can be a big unknown in Tennessee right now due to the extremely competitive real estate market. Many properties are selling for far more than what those properties were purchased for, even as soon as one year ago, so with any of these options it is extremely important to know what the property is worth. Understanding property value can usually be achieved by consulting with a seasoned real estate agent or real property appraiser. Often, real estate partition issues can be resolved prior to going to trial or even the filing of a law suit. With Tennessee partition suits, there can be other issues that need to be addressed, such as statutory offsets that can be owed to parties if one of the owners has resided on the property or made significant improvements to the property. All of these issues can be resolved by taking the appropriate legal action with competent legal representation.
If you have a question about selling real estate owned by you or your family or any other real estate legal matter call the Nashville real estate attorneys at Lackey | McDonald, PLLC and allow us to put our experience to work for you.