If you are the co-owner of a property and you want to terminate the co-ownership, please contact us without hesitation. Additional information about the procedure of division of the property, services provided by us and the possible problems that you may encounter is described below.

DIVISION OF JOINTLY OWNED REAL ESTATE

The ownership right over one real estate may belong to one or to several persons. When one property has more than one owner than the type of ownership is called co-ownership. The main option for termination of such co-ownership is division of the real estate. The main consequence of a division is that after such procedure the co-ownership is terminated and each of former co-owners receives individual property (or money equivalent relevant to the part of the property that belonged to him).

The main prerequisites for execution of a division deal are the following: the real estate or estates to be actually divisible and possibility of creating of the shares that would be equal to the part of each co-owner, i.e. the possibility for division of the existing real estate into new separate real estates according to the current legislation. For example, if the co-owners want to divide a field, the requirement is new real estates to be with the area of minimum 3000 sq.m., while for a vineyard this value is 1000 sq.m. If new real estates are not with the exact same size as the part possessed by each co-owner it is possible the parties to make payment that would equalize new shares /the co-owner who receives more than he had pays to the other co-owner/s/.

Depending on the relations and wishes between the co-owners the division can be voluntary or judicial /in case of lack of agreement between the co-owners/.

Voluntary /contractual/ division: in case of such division co-owners sign a notarised contract which after that is registered at the Property Register of the Registry Agency and has the power of a title deed. Such division requires presence of all the co-owners because otherwise the contract will be null and void. The division contract entirely terminates the co-ownership and arranges the ownership right over newly created real estates. It should be remembered that if the owner pays in order to receive a bigger share and if this owner is married then the newly formed real estate becomes the property of both spouses. The division contract can be challenged at court on common grounds like fraud, mistake, extortion and other. If the parties can not reach the mutual agreement and the voluntary division is impossible, the only decision is the judicial division.

Judicial division: Each co-owner has the right to make a court claim about judicial division against other co-owners. In this claim the court is generally required to terminate the co-ownership. The court case for judicial division consists of two phases. First, the court must establish all the co-owners of the real estate that will be divided and the percentage of ideal parts that belong to each co-owner. After that the actual distribution is executed. With the help of an expert the court divides the real estate by creating of separate shares for each co-owner after which each of them receives his property by lot. If the divided property is non-dividable and it can not be put into one of the shares then according to the art. 348 of the Civil and Procedural Code such property should be sold on a public sale which the parties can attend and where they can bid. If the indivisible property represents a dwelling unit then according to the art. 349 para. 2 of the Civil and Procedural Code each of the co-partitioners who, upon the opening of the succession resided therein and does not own another dwelling unit, may move that the said dwelling unit be allocated to the share thereof, with the shares of the rest of the co-partitioners being equalized by another immovable or by money. Where several co-partitioners satisfying the conditions of sentence one lay claims to allocation of the immovable to the share thereof, preference shall be given to the co-partitioner who offers a higher price.

Each party of the case for judicial division pays the court fees according to the market price of the received share.
There are no obstacles for the parties to make an agreement about the way of termination of the co-ownership during the judicial division and to arrange a court settlement.

We, from ID law office always advise our clients to make sure that the voluntary division between the co-owner is impossible and only after that to go on with the judicial division. Being certified mediators we always encourage the parties to arrange their relations via mutual agreement and explain that the voluntary division is the best way of termination of the co-ownership and the result that will be achieved by such division is as close as possible to their will, this division is executed much quicker and costs much less than the court one. Of course, when such division is impossible we protect our clients in the best possible way during the court proceeding.

The present article is not a legal consultation but presents a summarized theoretical development of a certain legal sphere. ID Law Office is not liable in the event of a misunderstanding of the information contained in this article.

The content of this website is property of ID Law Office is protected by the copyright law. ID Law Office has the ownership right over all articles, logos and company names shown in this website, as no part of this website and the information contained therein may not be copied, distributed, duplicated, downloaded, modified, adapted, used wholly or in part, in any form without the written consent of ID Law office.

ID Law Office reserves the right to commence a law suit in case of copyright infringement.