Can majority owners of a piece of real estate sale the whole piece of real estate against the minority owners wishes?

Depends. Is there an Tenants in Common Agreemen or other agreement that was signed when you title to the property. If not, the other members cant transfer the entire intrest without all the signatures. They may be able to transfer just their interest.

The answer is "it depends."

If you have a tenants-in-common (TIC) agreement that permits majority actions, like decisions to sell the property, then yes, the majority interests can make that decision. If not, and if the property is titled as tenants-in-common in a single undivided interest (the most likely ownership status of the co-owners), then the only way you're going to be able to break up the property is by filing a partition action, which can be statutory or equitable in nature. Partition is much like divorce-- you file the claim in court, and a judge weighs evidence and determines the best way to break up the property into divided interests among the co-owners. Oftentimes, the only way to break up an asset like a single dwelling on a piece of land is by selling it, so the majority owners might get their way, but only at some cost in litigation expenses.

The best way out of the situation is by agreement-- the people that don't want to sell the house could buy out the shares of the others, possibly over time. Or, perhaps if someone is living in the house, the house could be sold with a lease to the persons occupying it for a specified term.

In the absence of a TIC agreement, there is no easy way out for the majority owners.

Good luck! And remember-- this is not legal advice and we have no client-attorney relationship; every case is specific (e.g., I have made a lot of assumptions in writing the above). I suggest consulting with a lawyer acceptable to you.

The answer is probably no. You did not mention the formation of a partnership or other 'corporate' form of ownership, so the 3 family members (the "majority") who want to sell will have to convince the other two to go along with the sale. If a sales contract was signed by the majority only, it is not binding on the other family members and cannot be enforced by the propsed purchaser. I have encountered this issue and have reccomended that the majority buy out the other family members in order to gain full control of the property.

This advice does not create an attorney-client relationship and is for informational purposes only.

Yes