Co-Owner of Cooperative Unit May Sue For Partition and Sale
A joint owner of real property may sue for “partition,” asking the court to divide the property to separate the individual owners’ interests, or if necessary to sell the property and divide the sale proceeds among the owners. Although cooperative shares are considered personal property rather than real property under New York law, the court in Damas v. Biggs, 2018 N.Y. App. Div. 69, 2018 N.Y. Slip Op. 84 (1st Dep’t Jan. 4, 2018), reaffirmed that a cooperative unit may also be the subject of a partition action. In this case, “given that the parties could not reach a settlement agreement, and physical partition would cause great prejudice to both owners, the motion court correctly directed that the cooperative unit be sold and the proceeds divided.”