Dividing up the property

Maybe you are divorced and you and the ex spouse are co-owners of some real property. Or maybe you and your brother both inherited Dads house.  And now, one of you wants out; one of you wants to sell and cash out, and maybe the other one wants to keep the house, or disagrees with you on the sales price. Or one of you is bearing all the expenses, the taxes, the insurance, the homeowners association fees, and the other one refuses to contribute.
What can you do?  You basically have two choices.  You can cut a deal with the other guy, or you can file a “partition” suit.
Partition suits involve two steps; one, an accounting; where the money is tracked; who spent what on the property, and who benefited from the property; who lived there, who collected rent on it.  Then, the property is ordered sold by a judge; and after the sale, the judge orders a split of the money, taking into account and adjusting the figures for  who paid what over the years and who used the property.
The rules regarding the accounting are really complicated and depend on a lot of factors, which I am not going to get into here, but the point is, this is a very technical, detailed type of suit; it involves a lot of accounting and frankly, it can get expensive very quickly.  If you are at all able to strike a deal, you should consider it; on the other hand, if the other side is simply refusing to negotiate or to be reasonable, you need to talk to a lawyer about your rights and how to handle the lawsuit.