On Dec. 6, 2019 Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law New York state’s version of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act (RPAPL §993) (UPHPA). Practitioners should be aware of the pitfalls this new law brings to partition actions. One example: Many partition complaints filed in New York City ask, as a matter of course, for the relief of sale of the property and a division of the proceeds of sale among the owners. However, under the UPHPA, if the property for which the complaint seeks partition qualifies as “heirs property” as defined by RPAPL §993[2](e), then the filing of a complaint requesting a sale now constitutes an agreement by the plaintiff that his or her interest may be acquired by other co-tenants who have not requested a partition by sale at a value determined by the court. Thus, what might merely seem a form pleading has now become a vehicle to give an option to co-owners to purchase the plaintiff’s interest at a court-set price. This is a valuable right, and one that should not be given away by a party’s counsel without proper consultation.
The relevant provision of the new statute states:
Every co-tenant who requests or joins a request for partition of heirs property by sale has thereby agreed that his or her interest may be acquired in accordance herewith at the value determined under subdivision six of this section by the co-tenants who have not sought or joined in the request for partition by sale.
