Liam Babbitt successfully defends action to force the sale of a jointly owned property

Liam successfully defended an action brought by a co-owner under the Partition of Property Act (PPA) to force the sale of a jointly owned property.

Typically, when two parties equally own a property, either one can apply to the court to have it sold under the PPA. In this case, however, after living in a property for about a year, the co-owners decided to rent it out. The co-owners later separated and one of them brought an action to compel the sale of the property under the PPA. Liam established that in order to receive an order for the sale of a jointly owned property, a co-owner must have the right to immediate possession of the property. In this case, as the property was rented out, the court found that the co-owner did not have immediate possession of the property and was not entitled to an order for its sale.

For more information on this case, visit Benias v Lee, 2021 BCSC 2312 or contact Liam at liam@amlc.ca.