Real Property eNews

Joint ownership of property carries a significant number of rights with it. However, a joint owner cannot sell the property without permission from other co-owners. If one co-owner wants to sell or encumber the entire property and the other co-owner disagrees this can cause conflict. Outside of marriage, property is usually owned as a tenancy in common, a joint tenancy, or as a partnership. (Civ. Code § 686.) This type of ownership status usually stays the same over the course of one’s ownership. Read more

Batta v. Hunt: Both an unremarkable case about easements and inconsistent rulings as well as a new precedent about the statutory real estate transfer disclosure statement.  Read more

March 2025 By: Monty A. McIntyre, Esq. Monty A. McIntyre, Esq.Helping Attorneys Get Excellent Results Publisher: California Case Summaries™: Know More. Win More.Mediator at ADR Services, Inc.: Business, employment, insurance, probate, real property and torts cases.To schedule, contact one of Monty’s case managers Haward Cho, haward@adrservices.com, (213) 683-1600, or Rachael Boughan, rboughan@adrservices.com, (619) 233-1323. Trial training and preparation. Trial Alchemy™: Learn from Civil Jury Trial Experts. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. California Case Summaries™: California Case Summaries™: California attorneys can win more cases by… Read more

The Real Property Law Section (RPLS) offers attorneys a diverse array of volunteer opportunities across our nine Real Estate Practice Area Committees (PACs). Read more

The Real Property Law Journal (“Journal”) of the Real Property Law Section of the California Lawyers Association is California’s preeminent statewide publication for real estate attorneys. Read more

Partition is the legal procedure used to divide property among co-owners, often used when co-owners disagree about the property’s sale or division. In California, partition can be achieved through multiple methods: (1) Partition In Kind; (2) Partition by Sale; and (3) Partition by Appraisal. Read more

Baca v. Kuang (2025) _ Cal.App.5th _, 2025 WL 84296: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s judgment, following a bench trial, awarding plaintiff landlord possession of the leased premises in her unlawful detainer action. Read more

Trusts are an important way to set out one’s wishes for how and when you want to transfer assets like property. While trusts usually are set up as written contracts, other trusts can be enforced by the court, like resulting trusts and constructive trusts. These types of trusts are involuntary, meaning a court imposes them as a remedy to prevent an inequitable result, when property is wrongfully taken or transferred. (Kenneally v. Bank of Nova Scotia (2010) 711 F.Supp.2d 1174, 1190.) A resulting trust may arise where the transferor did not want the transferee to have a beneficial interest in the property. A constructive trust is used by the court to prevent unjust enrichment. Read more

Penal Code Section 396 discusses overpricing of goods and services following state of emergency or major disaster. Fire is included as an emergency under the Code section.  The Code explains: Read more

Kaur v. Dual Arch International (2024) _ Cal.App.5th _, 2024 WL 5082546: The Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s order granting defendant Dual Arch International, Read more