ABSTRACT
Co-owners, whether joint tenants or tenants in common, may agree voluntarily to put an end to the co-ownership by dividing up the property into separate parcels, each former co-owner henceforth becoming a single owner of his parcel. This process is known as ‘partition’. At common law, if the co-owners could not agree, there was no right vested in any of them to compel the others to submit to such partition. However, the Partition Acts 1539 and 1540 (UK) conferred a statutory right to bring an action to compel partition, so that one co-owner, whether joint tenant or tenant in common, could insist upon a partition, however inconvenient it might be for the other co-owners;47 later, the Partition Act 1868 conferred on the court a power to decree a sale of the land instead of partition, which would be desirable where, for instance, the property was too small to be conveniently or sensibly divided up between the co-owners, or ‘where partition in the physical sense would be very inconvenient or difficult to operate in a manner fair to all the interested parties’.47a
The statutory provisions as to compulsory partition and orders of sale in lieu of partition have been reproduced in most Commonwealth Caribbean jurisdictions,48 so that co-owners can apply to the High Court for an order for partition or, alternatively, for an order of sale,49 the effect of which will be that each co-owner will obtain a precise share out of the proceeds of sale.50
