Real Property Disputes

Real property is often the most valuable thing a person or business owns, and a dispute over it — a clouded title, a co-owner who wants out, a neighbor's encroaching fence, or damage to your land — can put that value at risk and drag on for months. Boyadzhyan Legal Shield advises and represents property owners throughout Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley in real estate disputes, bringing a courtroom-tested approach to protecting what you own.

Founding attorney Knarik Boyadzhyan is a former Deputy Public Defender who built her practice on rigorous preparation and evidence — the same discipline these cases reward. Real property disputes turn on documents, records, and often expert testimony: deeds and chains of title, surveys and legal descriptions, appraisals, and repair estimates. We assemble that record early so that whether your matter settles or goes before a judge, your position is grounded in proof rather than assertion.

This page covers the property disputes we most often handle — actions to quiet title, partition of co-owned property, boundary, easement and encroachment conflicts, nuisance and trespass, property and tree damage, and disputes arising from a purchase agreement or a seller's failure to disclose. Below you will find how California law treats each, how we approach a case, and where Valley real estate matters are actually decided. The information here is general and not legal advice; every property is different, and so is every dispute.

A quiet title action is a lawsuit that asks the court to determine ownership of real property and to remove — or “quiet” — competing claims, liens, and clouds on title. Property owners bring these actions to clear a defect that is blocking a sale or refinance, to resolve a boundary or ownership question, to establish title acquired by adverse possession or prescriptive easement, or to remove an invalid or fraudulent lien recorded against the property. California's quiet title statutes are found at Code of Civil Procedure §§ 760.010 through 764.080, which set out both the substance and the procedure.

These actions carry specific pleading requirements. Under Code of Civil Procedure § 761.020, a quiet title complaint must be verified and must include the legal description of the property, the title the plaintiff claims and the basis for it, the adverse claims being challenged, the date as of which the determination is sought, and a prayer for the court's determination. The court's judgment binds the parties and, once recorded, clears the record — which is why precision in the complaint matters so much.

A well-pleaded quiet title action can turn a stalled, unmarketable property back into one you can sell or borrow against. Because these cases often involve other parties with recorded interests, identifying and properly naming every claimant is an important early step; we work to get that right at the outset rather than discovering a gap later.

When two or more people own real property together — siblings who inherited a home, unmarried co-purchasers, business partners, or investors — and they cannot agree on what to do with it, any co-owner generally has the right to end the co-ownership through a partition action. California's partition statutes begin at Code of Civil Procedure § 872.210 and set out the procedure the court follows.

Partition can take two forms. Partition “in kind” physically divides the land among the owners, which is often impractical for a single house or a small parcel. Far more common is partition “by sale,” in which the court orders the property sold and the net proceeds divided among the owners according to their interests, with adjustments the court may make for one owner's payments toward the mortgage, taxes, or improvements. California law also now provides added procedures for certain co-owned property that can allow a co-owner to buy out the party seeking partition before any forced sale.

Partition is frequently the leverage that finally resolves a co-ownership stalemate, because the right to partition is a strong one and a court will generally grant it. In practice, many partition disputes settle in a buy-out or an agreed sale once the parties understand that a sale is the likely end point. We can bring a partition action, defend against one, or negotiate the buy-out that avoids it.

Disputes between neighboring owners take several forms. A boundary dispute questions where one parcel ends and the next begins, and usually turns on the recorded legal descriptions and a professional survey. An encroachment occurs when a structure — a fence, a wall, a deck, a driveway, or part of a building — crosses onto adjoining land. An easement dispute concerns the right to use another's property, such as a shared driveway or a utility or access route, and how far that right extends.

Easements come with maintenance obligations. Under Civil Code § 845, the owner of an easement of right-of-way is generally responsible for keeping it in repair, and where more than one person shares the easement the cost is apportioned among them by use — a frequent source of neighbor conflict that the statute addresses directly. Where an easement was never formally granted, a party may still claim a prescriptive easement based on long, open, and continuous use, which is proved with evidence and often resolved alongside a quiet title claim.

When a neighbor's use of their property unreasonably interferes with your use and enjoyment of yours — encroaching construction, water diverted onto your land, persistent noise, or a lasting hazard — that interference may be a nuisance. California defines nuisance broadly at Civil Code § 3479, and Civil Code § 3480 distinguishes a public nuisance, which affects an entire community or neighborhood, from a private nuisance affecting one owner. A trespass, by contrast, is an unauthorized physical entry onto your land. Both nuisance and trespass can support a claim for damages and, in a proper case, an injunction ordering the interference to stop.

When your real property is physically damaged — by a neighbor, a contractor, an adjacent construction project, or the spread of water or fire — California generally measures your recovery in one of two ways: the reasonable cost to repair or restore the property, or the diminution in its market value caused by the damage. Which measure applies depends on the facts, including whether repair is feasible and reasonable, and the two can produce very different numbers, so how the loss is framed and proved matters a great deal.

Damage to trees and timber has its own rule. Under Civil Code § 3346 and Code of Civil Procedure § 733, someone who wrongfully cuts down, injures, or removes trees on another's land is liable for treble (three times) the actual damages by default under Code of Civil Procedure § 733 and Civil Code § 3346 — reduced to double only where the trespass was casual or involuntary, or the person acted on a good-faith but mistaken belief the land was their own. These provisions exist because a mature tree can be difficult or impossible to replace, and they can substantially increase what is recoverable when a neighbor or contractor destroys landscaping without permission.

Real estate purchase disputes are a related category. California imposes broad disclosure duties on residential sellers — the Transfer Disclosure Statement and related obligations are set out at Civil Code § 1102 and following — and a seller who conceals or fails to disclose known material defects may face a claim for damages or, in some cases, rescission of the sale. These claims turn on what the seller actually knew and what the buyer could reasonably have discovered, which is why the paper trail and the timeline are so important. Remember, too, that claims for injury to real property are generally subject to a three-year statute of limitations under Code of Civil Procedure § 338(b), so timing matters.

Boyadzhyan Legal Shield is based in Encino on Ventura Boulevard and handles real property disputes throughout the San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles — Sherman Oaks, Tarzana, Van Nuys, Woodland Hills, Studio City, Northridge, and the surrounding communities. Property values across the Valley are significant, and so are the stakes when title, boundaries, or damage are in question.

Civil disputes over real property located in the San Fernando Valley are generally filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, and Valley matters are commonly heard at the Van Nuys Courthouse. Familiarity with the local courts and how these cases are actually litigated and resolved in the Valley is an advantage that an out-of-area firm cannot readily offer. Whether your dispute is with a neighbor, a co-owner, a seller, or a contractor, we are close to your property and to the court that will decide the case.