Dear Clients and Friends,

I am writing this blog in order to help our current and future prospective clients and our friends learn a bit about what we do, how we do it and to share some of the stories and cases our clients bring to us. I have changed the names of the individuals involved and have not disclosed any confidential matters. I hope you find the stories and events I write about interesting and informative.

I don’t know why it is, but increasingly, (like several times a week) we are hearing from or seeing clients who come to us because they have placed their BFF, lover, boyfriend, girlfriend, fiancée, or live-in on the deed to their home; and, now that the romance has gone out of the relationship, they want them out of the home and their names off the deed. This situation is frequently complicated because there may be a mortgage on the property for which both parties are liable. It is almost as bad as a divorce, but usually there are no children involved in these cases. Sometimes, people will be put in a joint ownership situation as a result of a shared inheritance, like when Mom or Dad dies and leaves the house to two or more children. In those cases, the children can usually agree to list the house and sell it and split the money in accordance with each’s share of the inheritance.

But sometimes the children, who jointly inherit, are at odds with each other just like the ex-lovers I referenced above. The court, through its equity powers can and will come to the aid of the parties and allow the property to be sold and the proceeds divided between the parties, allowing for the occasion where one joint owner paid more than their share for the purchase, maintenance, repair, utilities, taxes, ect., during the joint ownership. This is called a Partition Action. Occasionally, people can be creative in trying to obtain reimbursement for expenses that really don’t benefit the joint ownership. One such occasion happened recently where a joint owner occupied the home to the hostile exclusion of the other joint owner and yet claimed the utilities expense (over $7,000) was a jointly shared expense because “it was necessary for the electricity to be on to keep the house from becoming mildewed”. The court disallowed that expense, since it clearly benefitted the occupier of the home and not our client who had been kicked out of the home several years earlier. In the final outcome of the case, the court did find that each party had paid some of the common joint expenses and the court apportioned the sales proceeds accordingly, and in my view, correctly.

We have good judges here in the 5th Judicial Circuit of Florida. And, I am proud to practice in front of them. They will listen to the parties and counsel, give reasonable leeway on the presentation of evidence and carefully consider both sides of the argument before ruling. I don’t always win, nor do I always lose. But, regardless of the outcome, I feel I always get a fair hearing or trial for my client. So, here’s a big shout out to the Judiciary. Each judge does their part to make our legal system the best in the world. For that, this 32year member of the Bar thanks you.

The take away from this blog is please be careful about who you put on the title of your home. It is much easier to put them on the deed than it is to take them off the deed and the expense of removing them from the deed is greater than you may imagine when you include the emotional trauma that a failed relationship often brings with it. It’s not always about the dollars; it is more often about the “sense”.

That’s all I have time for on this our sixth blog. I hope you found it interesting and enjoyable reading. Please check back for additional blog messages. And, as always, I want to say thanks to our clients and friends. If any reader has a legal matter or question, please let us know by emailing us or giving us a call. If we can help, we will. If we can’t, perhaps we can refer you to someone who can. If neither, well, it never hurts to say “Hello”.

Yours truly,
Jonathan S. Dean
Dean and Dean, LLP