In Illinois, real estate co-owners have the option of filing a "partition" action to resolve their land dispute. A partition action enables you to force the sale of property when coowners are refusing to sell.When two or more people own the same property, one of the owners CAN force a sale of the jointly owned property via a partition action or lawsuit. A partition action is a legal proceeding to force the sale of property when one or more cotenants refuse to sell.