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NOTICE: This opinion is subject to motions for rehearing under Rule 22 as well as formal revision before publication in the New Hampshire Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter, Supreme Court of New Hampshire, One Charles Doe Drive, Concord, New Hampshire 03301, of any editorial errors in order that corrections may be made before the opinion goes to press. Errors may be reported by E-mail at the following address: reporter@courts.state.nh.us. Opinions are available on the Internet by 9:00 a.m. on the morning of their release. The direct address of the court's home page is: http://www.courts.state.nh.us/supreme. THE SUPREME COURT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE ___________________________ Rockingham County Probate Court No. 2007-249 RICHARD N. FOLEY v. TIMOTHY S. WHEELOCK Argued: March 20, 2008 Opinion Issued: May 30, 2008 Richard N. Foley, by brief and orally, pro se. Boynton, Waldron, Doleac, Woodman & Scott, P.A., of Portsmouth (William G. Scott on the brief and orally), for the respondent. BRODERICK, C.J. In this action to partition real property, the petitioner, Richard N. Foley, appeals an order of the Rockingham County Probate Court (O'Neill, J.) allowing the respondent, Timothy S. Wheelock, to purchase the subject property after an unsuccessful public auction at a lower price than the court-ordered reserve. Foley also challenges an order requiring him to subsidize Wheelock's rental of an off-site office during the pendency of the sale. We affirm. I The record reveals the following. In 1997, the parties purchased an office condominium in downtown Portsmouth as tenants-in-common for $75,000. They used the premises to house their respective law offices. In December

2005, as an apparent result of deteriorating relations between the parties, Foley filed a petition requesting a court-supervised partitioning of the condominium. See RSA 547-C:25 (2007). In March 2006, before the probate court acted upon the petition, Wheelock moved his office to another location. In early June, following a hearing, the probate court granted the petition to partition. In so doing, it found "no cause to award one party more than onehalf the equity in the unit," and that "[the parties] should both be afforded the opportunity to purchase the property." While Foley had asked to be allowed to purchase the condominium for $139,000, the court credited expert testimony presented by Wheelock that the fair market value of the property was $179,000. It entered the following order: 1. The parties may agree to a private auction . . . with a reserve price of $159,000. 2. If the parties do not agree to a private auction, the property will be sold through a public auction. The parties may agree upon a reserve and method of sale for the public auction. If they cannot agree [upon a reserve price], the reserve will be $179,000 and the court will appoint a commissioner to sell the property at auction, the commissioner's fees to be paid equally by the parties out of the proceeds from the sale of the property. 3. After the property is sold . . . the proceeds will be divided equally between the parties except that from [Foley's] one-half share, [Wheelock] will be paid $409.55 [for overdue utility bills] and $325 monthly from April 1, 2006 until the sale of the property, to be prorated as of the date of the sale. The $325 figure referenced by the court represented one-half of Wheelock's monthly rent at his new office space. By September, the parties had not reached an agreement on the method of sale for the condominium. Consequently, the following month, the court ordered them to sell the condominium at public auction as contemplated by its June order. The court also appointed an auctioneer, who subsequently scheduled an auction for November 16 and took steps

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