How Can I Legally Remove an Owner?

Introduction

Heirs' property is real estate owned by family members, most or all of whom inherited their share of the property. When you inherit real estate from someone, you do not get to decide whether or not to inherit property and with whom you inherit property. If you co-own heirs property, the legal rights connected to that form of ownership have limitations on how ownership interests can be changed, including court actions. Therefore, if you want to "remove" an owner, there are limitations.

What can owners do with their share?

Option 1

Owners are allowed to transfer their interest to whomever they want while they are alive. They cannot be forced by anyone to transfer their interest and when they die, their interest is inherited by their heirs. Even if an owner has not participated in management and use of the property or contributed their share of any costs associated with the property, they cannot be "removed" from ownership by the other owners. Instead, a court action would be required. Most likely, a co-owner(s) would ask the court to determine that the active owners are the full owners to the exclusion of the non-active owner(s) on the basis that they have been managing and using the property as their own and to the exclusion of the non-active owner(s) for a period of time that meets the legal requirements for such an action. 

Option 2

Alternatively, an owner can ask the court to physically divide the property- a partition in kind. The court, then, has to determine whether the property can be physically divided equitably based on each owner's share. If this is possible, each owner gets their own piece of land. If the court is unable to physically divide the property equitably proportional to each owner's share, they must sell the property- a partition sale. Depending on the state, a partition sale action could and most likely result in the family losing the property.

Therefore, it is important to seek counsel from an attorney to find out what options exist. And if your family property does not have clear title, i.e. if the ownership has not been legally confirmed to ID the current owners, this step will likely be a necessary first step.