The costs of partition include reasonable expenses, including attorney's fees, necessarily incurred by a party for the common benefit in prosecuting or defending other actions or other proceedings for the protection, confirmation, or perfection of title, setting the boundaries, or making a survey of the property, with interest thereon at the legal rate from the time of making the expenditures.
§ 874.020.Expenses Incurred In Prosecuting Or Defending Other Actions Or Proceedings
Title 10.5. Partition of Real and Personal Property · Chapter 8. Costs of Partition · Article 1. Allowance and Apportionment of Costs of Partition · Enacted 1976 · no amendments on record · Last verified July 28, 2026
In one sentenceSection 874.020 extends the costs of partition to reasonable expenses, including attorney's fees, that a party necessarily incurs for the common benefit in prosecuting or defending other actions or proceedings to protect, confirm, or perfect title, set boundaries, or survey the property, plus interest at the legal rate from the time the expenses were paid.
Full Text of § 874.020
Plain-English Summary
Sometimes clearing up who owns what requires litigation outside the partition action itself — a quiet title suit, a boundary dispute, a separate proceeding to perfect title. This section lets the reasonable expenses of that outside litigation, including attorney's fees, count as costs of partition when they were necessarily incurred for the common benefit.
The qualifying purposes are specific: protecting, confirming, or perfecting title, setting the property's boundaries, or surveying it. Expenses tied to those purposes carry interest at the legal rate, running from the time the party made the expenditure.
Read together with § 874.010, this section makes clear that "costs of partition" isn't limited to what happens inside the four corners of the partition case — it reaches the related litigation that had to happen for the partition to go forward cleanly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can expenses from a separate lawsuit count as partition costs?
Yes, if they were reasonable expenses a party necessarily incurred for the common benefit in prosecuting or defending an action or proceeding to protect, confirm, or perfect title, set boundaries, or survey the property.
Does interest apply to these expenses?
Yes, at the legal rate, running from the time the expenditures were made.
Does attorney's fees from that outside litigation count too?
Yes, § 874.020 expressly includes attorney's fees among the qualifying expenses.
Amendment History
Added by Stats. 1976, Ch. 73.
Source & verification. Section text is reproduced verbatim from
the Deering's California Codes Annotated / vLex. Enacted by the California Legislature.
Last verified July 28, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: costs of related title actions partition californiaboundary survey costs partition