Landowner Partition Attorney Philip Hundl describes partition by agreement among the co-owners. Call or text 800-266-4870 for an appointment with Mr. Hundl.
Summary of Partition by Agreement
Hi, I’m Philip Hundl. I’m an attorney in Texas. My practice area focuses on representing landowners facing common condemnation proceedings or land partition proceedings.
I’ve seen a surge in land partition proceedings, with a desire for co-owners to partition out their undivided interest. So I’m going to focus on this discussion on partitions, and we’re going to go through a series of videos describing the different steps in a partition case.
What Is a Partition by Agreement?
So let’s start out with the first step — a partition by agreement. This is the preferred scenario, if possible.
When there are fewer co-owners, it’s more likely for an agreement to be reached. With more co-owners, it’s often difficult because you need a unanimous agreement amongst all the co-owners.
Sometimes clients will tell me, they have a majority of the co-owners who want to partition the land a certain way. Then they assume they are going to win because they have the majority and majority rules. However, in a partition matter, agreement has to be unanimous, with all 100% interest involved.
Focus on Partitioning the Surface
And when we talk about partition, let’s always focus on partitioning the surface. Yes, there can be agreements on the minerals, but minerals are very easily divided when there are co-owners. That’s done all the time with oil companies and oil and gas leases. The undivided interests in minerals are leased up. So when we’re talking about partitions, we’re just talking about the surface.
Get the Partition by Agreement in Writing
If you can get a partition by agreement amongst everybody, I highly recommend that you get it in writing — even if it’s just a simple letter agreement with a rudimentary diagram. The more detail and specificity, the better, But get everybody who is going to need to ultimately sign the partition deed, to sign that partition agreement so that we have everybody on board.
There have been many times I’ve seen cases where everyone thinks they have an agreement, but there’s not an agreement in writing. Someone hires a surveyor to survey out the proposed or intended partition, and then the survey isn’t used because there’s not 100% agreement.
So if you can get an agreement in place, that’s great. Get it nailed down with a written agreement so that you get it right.
Get an Attorney with Experience in Partitions
I recommend that you talk to an attorney who handles partition matters so that the attorney can take into consideration all the things that possibly need to be taken into consideration with your particular tract of land. Some possible items for consideration could be access easements for ingress and egress. Let’s say a co-owner’s portion of land goes to the back of the property, and he needs a way to get to it.
Just take all those things into consideration in your partition agreement. That could be simply a simple letter agreement, but once again, a simple letter agreement needs to include all those important details that ultimately need to be in a deed that everyone’s going to sign.
So hopefully that’s helpful; just one of the many steps in a partition process. So hopefully that brings you some value. Good luck.