What legal action is brought to terminate the ownership interest of a co-owner to real property?

A partition suit is a legal action specifically designed to terminate the ownership interest of a co-owner in real property. This type of lawsuit is initiated when co-owners cannot agree on the use or management of the property, or when one party wishes to sell their interest but the others do not. The court can order the property to be divided among the co-owners, which is known as physical partition, or if a physical division is impractical, it may order the property to be sold and the proceeds distributed according to each owner’s interest. This process resolves disputes over shared ownership and provides a clear legal method to disengage co-owners from one another.

In contrast, eviction notices pertain to the removal of tenants from a rental property and are unrelated to the ownership interests of co-owners. A foreclosure action deals with the enforcement of a mortgage and is initiated by a lender to reclaim property due to the borrower’s failure to meet the obligations of the loan. A quiet title action is used to settle disputes regarding the title to property and establish who has legal ownership, but it does not specifically address the division of ownership interests among co-owners.