As housing prices have appreciated, we have seen less foreclosures and short sales - they're not gone, but clearly reduced in number recently.

The trend we've seen in an increase in other types of lawsuits with the increase in property values.

In particular, I have many more partition lawsuits in the office than I did a year or even six months ago. In a partition lawsuit, two co-owners are fighting over whether to sell a jointly owned home, and when sold how much does each owner receive from the sale. Typically, partition lawsuits arise between unmarried individuals that own property - siblings or extended family, non-married individuals that co-own a home, and people who acquire a home jointly as heirs of a deceased person.

Along with partition lawsuits, we have also seen a rise in quiet title lawsuits. The purpose of a quiet title lawsuit is to have the Court determine whether someone's interest in a house is legitimate - maybe an heir omitted from probate, or maybe a "wild deed" in the title.

On this week's episode of the Crushing Debt Podcast, George and Shawn talk about real estate, partition and quiet title lawsuits.

For more information on these topics, check out previous episodes:

• 207 - Never Give a House as a Gift
• 13 - What is a Partition Lawsuit?
• 75 - Quit Claim Deeds and Quiet Title Lawsuits
• 296 - A Guide to Title Insurance

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• Sam Cohen of Attorneys First Insurance for Attorneys and Title Companies looking to get a quote on Errors & Ommissions (malpractice) Insurance coverage. www.AttorneysFirst.com.
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To contact George Curbelo, you can email him at [email protected].

To contact Shawn Yesner, you can email him at [email protected] / www.YesnerLaw.com.