Practice Areas Real Estate & Construction Litigation

Alternative dispute resolution, arbitration, and mediation
Brokerage issues and broker’s commission disputes
Construction agreements and bonds
Construction defects, delays, and design
Construction lien and bond claims, foreclosure, and defense
Foreclosures
Investment and development disputes
Joint-venture disputes
Landlord and commercial-tenant eviction
Purchase and sale agreement disputes
Quiet-title disputes and deed rescission
Reducing confrontation with other project participants
Rising construction costs and market dynamics: commercial viability, project planning, and workforce changes

Real estate litigation combines legal rights with an asset that may be occupied, financed, under construction, income-producing, or essential to a larger transaction. Delay can affect possession, title, lien priority, carrying costs, tenants, project schedules, and financing. Gherman Legal represents owners, investors, developers, contractors, associations, landlords, tenants, and other stakeholders in Miami and throughout South Florida.

Therefore, effective strategy begins with the property record and the business objective. Deeds, surveys, declarations, leases, purchase agreements, title commitments, loan documents, construction contracts, change orders, notices, permits, inspection records, payment applications, and communications should be organized before positions become fixed. The right remedy may be damages, possession, title relief, lien enforcement or defense, specific performance, rescission, negotiated correction, or a transaction that resolves the dispute.

Real estate litigation involving title, ownership, and possession

For example, a cloud on title can arise from a competing deed, unreleased lien, boundary issue, defective legal description, heirship question, or other recorded interest. A quiet-title action asks the court to determine the parties’ interests and remove an invalid cloud. The claimant must identify the property and deraignment of title with care. Quiet Title Actions in Florida explains pleading, proof, defenses, and the importance of a precise judgment.

Other ownership disputes, however, require different tools. Partition may divide jointly owned property or result in a sale, with special protections potentially applying to heirs property. Ejectment tests superior title and the right to possession; it is not interchangeable with a conventional landlord-tenant eviction. Adverse possession requires strict statutory proof and differs depending on whether the claimant proceeds with color of title. See the firm’s guides to partition, ejectment, and adverse possession.

Condominium, landlord, and association disputes

Similarly, condominium and association matters may involve assessments, use restrictions, records, repairs, governance, transfer or use fees, and the relationship between a declaration, statute, rules, and later amendments. Labels do not necessarily validate a charge that the governing documents or statute do not authorize. Can a Condo Association Charge Fees Not in the Declaration? discusses why the source of authority and financial records matter.

Commercial landlord-tenant disputes often turn on the lease, notice and cure provisions, rent records, permitted use, maintenance obligations, guarantees, renewal rights, and possession. A possession remedy may move on a different schedule from a damages claim. As a result, early attention to notices, payment history, and the desired end state can prevent procedural mistakes and create a more useful resolution strategy.

Construction contracts, liens, defects, and damages

Construction disputes are document-intensive. Therefore, contracts, scopes, plans, specifications, subcontracts, bonds, notices to owner, claims of lien, change orders, daily reports, photographs, inspections, schedules, and payment records should be preserved in a usable chronology. Florida’s lien law provides payment security but imposes exacting notice and filing requirements. Florida Construction Lien Explained summarizes who may claim a lien and the deadlines that can determine enforcement.

In addition, damages may concern repair costs, delay, additional work, unpaid balances, lost profits, diminished value, or other contract measures. The proper measure depends on the agreement, proof, causation, mitigation, and proportionality. In defect cases, the economic-waste doctrine may affect whether repair cost or diminished value is the more appropriate measure. The firm’s guides to construction contract damages and economic waste explain those competing measures.

Transactions, development, and project resolution

Purchase-and-sale, development, brokerage, and joint-venture disputes may involve deposits, contingencies, due diligence, disclosure, title objections, financing, commissions, authority, allocation of risk, or failure to close. Accordingly, before filing real estate litigation, counsel should identify whether the client wants to compel the transaction, terminate it, recover funds, preserve the property, or restructure the deal.

On an active project, the legal solution should account for ongoing relationships and the cost of delay. At the same time, a focused standstill, escrow, access protocol, repair plan, payment arrangement, or mediation can sometimes preserve project value while claims are evaluated. When agreement is not possible, lis pendens, injunction, lien foreclosure, possession relief, summary judgment, or trial may be appropriate, subject to the governing law and proof.

Real estate litigation remedies and practical considerations

Available relief may include compensatory damages, specific performance, rescission, reformation, declaratory relief, an accounting, quiet title, ejectment, partition, lien foreclosure, possession, temporary or permanent injunctions, prejudgment interest, costs, and attorney’s fees where authorized. For that reason, the chosen remedy must fit the interest at issue and the client’s actual objective.

Finally, a sound strategy also accounts for property value, priority, insurance, collectability, carrying costs, financing covenants, repair feasibility, tenants, sale timing, and the effect of a public filing. For example, the economically strongest result may be a judgment, a corrected title record, possession, a completed closing, or a negotiated project solution.

Obtaining records when a witness will not comply

Construction disputes can require records from nonparty witnesses as well as opposing parties. In a Broward County construction matter, Gherman Legal obtained an order granting a contempt motion against a nonparty witness for failure to comply with a document subpoena and production order; the court later issued a civil writ of bodily attachment. Our guide to enforcing discovery orders through civil contempt explains the remedy and its limits. This enforcement result did not decide the underlying construction claims. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Representative matters

The firm’s published Results include a 2019 final judgment rescinding a deed and quieting title to multiple parcels; a 2022 settlement of $800,000 in a real-estate lien dispute; a 2023 final judgment for possession and issuance of a writ of possession in an eviction dispute; and a 2020 closing, after an arduous litigation fight in our clients’ favor, of a five-unit condominium portfolio that included tenant estoppels, payoff coordination, and seller closing documents.

Past results depend on the facts and law of each matter and do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case.

Attorney perspective

Sergiu Gherman handles real estate litigation, construction disputes, title matters, and commercial disputes as part of a broader business-litigation practice. The firm’s approach connects procedural tools to the property, transaction, or project outcome the client actually needs.

Frequently asked questions

How much does real estate litigation or a construction dispute cost?

Cost depends on the type of property interest, number of parties, urgency, title and expert issues, discovery volume, motion practice, and whether the matter proceeds to trial or appeal. Therefore, a phased assessment can identify deadlines and the evidence most likely to change the result.

How long can the matter take?

A default or possession matter may move faster than a multi-party title, condominium, or construction case. For example, a mediated resolution may take months; a case requiring extensive discovery, experts, trial, or appeal may take eighteen months or longer. The court, forum, statutory procedure, and urgency all matter.

Can the property be protected while the case is pending?

Similarly, potential tools may include a lis pendens, injunction, escrow, access or preservation order, lien remedies, or other property-specific relief. Availability depends on the claim, ownership record, threatened harm, notice, bond, and procedural requirements.

Is a quiet-title action the same as ejectment or eviction?

No. Specifically, quiet title resolves competing or invalid interests affecting ownership; ejectment generally tests superior title and the right to possession; eviction is a statutory landlord-tenant remedy. Choosing the wrong vehicle can create delay or dismissal risk.

Related Florida legal guides

General information only; not legal advice. Reading this page or contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Real Estate & Construction Litigation