Los Angeles · Ontario · San Diego · Carlsbad
California real estate and probate litigation attorneys
Title clouded, a boundary contested, co-owners at an impasse, or a trust that will not distribute. We clear the dispute that is holding up your property.
Call our intake team. If your matter fits, we schedule a free 30-minute consultation with an attorney. Document review starts after you retain us.
Call about your matter
Describe the property and the dispute so the firm can assess whether it is a matter it handles.
Meet founding partners Josué and Cynthia. The attorney responsible for a matter depends on its facts, location and fit.
- 4.666 Google reviewsOntario profile
- Over 20 years of combined experience
- Serving Los Angeles, Ontario, San Diego and Carlsbad
- Hablamos español
We are not general practitioners who dabble in real estate.
We are immersed in this area of law. When a property dispute reaches the point where letters have stopped working, the matter goes to court, and courtroom work is what we prepare for from the start.
We represent regular people in disputes over real estate, we conduct trials ourselves, and we usually charge a flat fee so you can plan for the cost.
What people ask us first
Can my sibling force the sale of the house we inherited in California?
Generally yes. Once title is in your names, any co-owner can go to court and force a sale or a buyout through what California calls partition. Before a court-ordered sale, the owners who did not ask for one usually get a chance to buy out the owner who did.
How long do I have to contest a trust or a will in California?
Generally 120 days. For a trust, it runs from when the trustee serves the notice of trust administration, or 60 days from when you are delivered a copy of the trust during that window, whichever is later. For a will, it is 120 days after the will is admitted to probate. If no trust notice was ever sent, that 120-day deadline does not run, though other limits can still apply.
I just bought a house and found out the neighbor's fence is on my property. Do I have to accept it?
Not necessarily. Get a survey first to be sure you are right. In general a fence belongs to whoever's property it stands on, so a fence inside your line is usually yours. A fence on the line is a common boundary fence, and neither neighbor can change it without the other's permission or a judge's order.
How much does a real estate lawyer cost in California for a property dispute?
It depends on the case. We usually offer flat fee litigation paid monthly so you can predict the cost. Most of our litigation matters cost about $5,000 to get started, plus the monthly amount and costs such as expert witnesses or filing fees. If you are already facing a trial, arbitration or mediation, the first payment can be higher.
Real estate
What we litigate
California venue rules send a real property action to the county where the property sits. Our four offices follow that map.
Real Estate Litigation
When a property dispute reaches the point where letters have stopped working, the case goes to court. That is the part we prepare for from the first call.
Code of Civil Procedure section 392Quiet Title
A quiet title action asks the court to decide, once and for all, who owns the property and on what terms.
Code of Civil Procedure section 764.010Partition Actions
When people who own a property together cannot agree what to do with it, partition is the court process that ends the deadlock.
Code of Civil Procedure section 874.311 and followingAdverse Possession
Adverse possession is how someone can acquire title by occupying land, and it is also the claim we most often defeat on a single element.
Code of Civil Procedure section 325Easement Litigation
An easement dispute is usually about one thing: someone can no longer get to, or use, something they have always been able to get to.
Title Fraud
A deed that was forged is void, not merely voidable, and that distinction decides most of these cases.
Recording and noticeNon-Disclosures
You bought the house, then you found the thing the seller knew about and did not tell you.
Civil Code section 1102 and followingForeclosure Defense
This is litigation over a foreclosure that should not have happened. It is not a loan modification service.
Civil Code section 2924 and followingWills, trusts, probate and the disputes that follow
Most California estates hold real property, which is why these matters so often become property matters.
Probate
Probate is the court supervised process of transferring what someone owned after they die.
Probate Code sections 8000, 8100 and followingProbate Administration
If you have been named to administer an estate, you have taken on legal duties. The people who inherit have the right to hold you to them.
Fiduciary dutyProbate Litigation
Probate litigation is what happens when the estate itself becomes the dispute. It is the court fight over who inherits, who is in charge, and what belongs to the estate at all.
Probate Code section 850Trust Litigation
Trust litigation has one deadline that ends more cases than any argument does.
Probate Code sections 16061.7 and 16061.8Trusts
A trust that was signed but never funded does not do what the family was told it would do.
FundingWills
A will decides who receives what, and it does so through the probate court rather than around it.
Probate Code sections 6110 and 6111What happens when you call
You tell our intake team about the property and the dispute
The address, who else claims an interest, and anything already filed or recorded.
If it fits, you get a free 30-minute consultation with an attorney
Real property, trust and estate litigation is what this firm does. If a matter sits outside that, intake will tell you. If it fits, intake schedules the consultation.
Representation begins in writing, or not at all
No attorney-client relationship begins unless the firm agrees in writing to represent you. Until it does, please do not send confidential information.
The people behind the file
Two founding partners and the staff who keep matters moving across four California offices.
Meet the founding partners
Josué Cristóbal Guerrero
Josué is a founding partner of Greenacre Law and manages the firm's Ontario office. His practice divides between real property litigation and the transactional work that sits alongside it.
Cynthia Velasco
Cynthia is a founding partner of Greenacre Law and works from the firm's Los Angeles office. Her practice covers estate planning and the litigation that follows when a plan is contested or a trustee does not do what the instrument requires.
Four California offices
Choose the office nearest the property or call the main line and we will route you.