Property in co-ownership — when it is impossible to sell your share

Joint ownership is one of the most complex forms of rights to real estate. It simultaneously grants each co-owner a share in a common asset and imposes significant restrictions on the exercise of this right. Practice shows that conflicts most often arise when one of the co-owners tries to sell or donate their share without the consent of the others. The law formally allows this, but in reality the transaction frequently becomes impossible because of legal and practical barriers.​

Legal nature of joint fractional ownership
Under Articles 355–367 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, joint fractional ownership means that each co-owner has a defined share in the ownership right to the property, while the property itself remains a single and indivisible object until it is divided in kind or a share is separated into an independent asset. This structure creates a duality: the rights of each party are legally regulated, but in practice use and disposal often overlap, which becomes a source of numerous conflicts, especially when a share is sold to a third party.​

Pre-emptive right of co-owners to purchase
The key restriction is set out in Article 362 of the Civil Code, which establishes the co-owners’ pre‑emptive right to buy a share. If a co-owner decides to sell, they must notify the other co-owners in writing of the intention to sell, the terms of the transaction and the price, and for real estate the others have one month to decide whether to buy. This mechanism is designed to protect co-owners from outsiders entering the circle of joint ownership but at the same time significantly complicates the disposal of a share and often makes the deal practically unrealizable: delays in responses, artificial price manipulation or avoidance of receiving notices turn the right to sell into a purely theoretical option.​

Typical situations where selling a share is impossible

1. No real division of the property: the buyer receives only an ideal (undivided) share with no clear use, which is practically unusable without consent from the other co-owners and economically unattractive.
2. Conflict between co-owners: blocking access to the property and documents makes formalizing a transaction difficult and risky even if a buyer is found.
3. Long litigation history: disputes, arrests or unclear rights discourage buyers, and banks usually refuse to finance such deals.
4. Insignificant share (for example, 1/20 or 1/100): the sale is mostly formal, does not resolve use issues and the buyer cannot obtain a separate part in kind.
5. Violation of the notification procedure: any co-owner may ask the court to recognize the buyer as a bad-faith acquirer and transfer the buyer’s rights to themselves, so notaries will often refuse to certify such transactions without impeccable proof of proper notice.​

Division in kind and compensation
The only reliable way to legally “free” one’s share is division in kind or allocation into a separate property unit. If this is technically possible (for example, part of a house with a separate entrance, a land plot, a garage), a co-owner may apply to court to have a specific part defined; after that the new unit is registered separately and its sale becomes straightforward. If division is impossible, the court may award monetary compensation for the share to be paid by the other co-owners, but this works only where they agree or the judgment sets a compensation amount; otherwise the owner remains a “hostage” of their share.​

Attempts to sell on the open market
A buyer looks for an asset that can be used in practice. Purchasing ½ or ⅓ of an apartment with unknown co-owners, no allocated rooms and no clear arrangements is an unjustified risk, so in practice there are almost no buyers for such shares. Sometimes alternative mechanisms are used, such as auction sales, gifts followed by division, exchange of a share for another asset or compensation, but all of them require careful legal support and still do not guarantee success.​

Conclusions: where law meets reality
The law grants a co-owner the right to dispose of their share, but this right is often conditional. When the object is effectively indivisible and the interests of the co-owners are in conflict, selling a share becomes almost impossible, and the real outcome is determined less by legal rules than by the balance of power between the parties. Therefore, before deciding to sell a share, it is important to assess the possibility of division in kind, review documents and disputes, duly notify all co-owners and involve a lawyer to structure and support the transaction. These steps may not speed up the process, but they significantly reduce the risk of future litigation.​

If you have questions or issues related to disposing of a share in joint property, dividing real estate or structuring the purchase of a share, you should seek individual legal advice to find a safe solution in your particular case.​

Author – Svitlana Krutorohova, attorney at the law firm “Legal Company ‘WINNER’”.