In our practice we help clients who face the end of their relationship and need a way to divide property that they have purchased with their partner, spouse, or significant other. While the Texas Family Code provides the frame work for dividing property in a divorce, it is silent when it comes to dividing joint assets of unmarried people. For these clients, we turn suits for partition in civil court according to the Texas Property Code and the Rules of Civil Procedure.
The Texas Property Code and the Rules of Civil Procedure provide that a joint owner or claimant of real property or an interest in real property or a joint owner of personal property may compel a partition of the interest or the property among the joint owners. Unlike a divorce where the court can consider various factors such as fault in the break-up of the marriage, age, and earning capacity of the spouses, a suit for partition the financial situation of the parties and other factors not relating to the property cannot be considered.
With real and personal property subject to partition these suits provide the increasing number of individuals who do not meet the Texas definition of “married” with a viable means of dividing joint property and moving forward with their lives. For more information on suits for partition contact an attorney for a consultation