Tenant in Common Property with Unclear Shares and Way Too Many Owners

[Matt Gehrls]

A property was bought by my grandfather and two relatives as a tenancy in common concurrent ownership. The three have died and all had heirs that split the property, but they all had a different number of kids.

First question: Are those shares split evenly? Or does the second generation split their fathers 1/3 of the property?

There were something like 12 people who had shares in the property, then one died and had no heir so we aren't sure where that share went.

Second question: Any ideas on where it went? If not specified in a will would be it split evenly between his three sisters? Could this happen without a court getting involved?

Either way now there are 11 people who own the property or something along those lines. I haven't met many of them as they are pretty distant relatives at this point who live all over the U.S. and some in Canada. I would say about half of those owners don't want it anymore and are tired of paying property taxes on land they have never once been to. The other half feels personal connection to the land but even some of them never use it. It is almost exclusively used for deer hunting. Most of the owners don't hunt.

It cannot be partitioned easily. It is a long and not very wide piece of land, and of course the not very wide part is on the road.

The people who want the land don't have the money to buy out the other shares. It has gotten to a point where some have stopped paying their share of the property taxes as they have been advised their interest in the property won't diminish and there will be no real ramifications for doing that.

Some day I am going to inherit this mess, and I know the details will definitely change before that, but I was curious about legal ways other than going to court to help simplify the situation at the very least.

From what I understand each share is worth something around 30k so I don't think anybody wants to just get rid of their share for nothing.

Also, if I misunderstand something or said something that doesn't make sense, it could very well be that I lack some understanding and would appreciate any clarification you could offer.

[Bill Gulley]

@David J. 

can probably nail this for you from the title/estate angle.

Usually the father's interest, 1/3 interest will then go to his heirs, if there were 12, 1/3 is divided equally among the 12.

As folks pass on, you can have a real title nightmare after those 12 or so get married and divorce or pass on .....just gets messy. Should address it as soon as possible;

If there was no Will, it will go to probate and the interests distributed, maybe an Administrator's deed was filed.

Curing any claims, you will have a partition suit filed, if the parties can not agree the court may order the property sold and proceeds distributed. I have seen appraisals made and one interested party agrees to offer more and the court orders the sale with proceeds distributed as to interests held.

I'd suggest you speak to an attorney in your area on the matter and see if compromises can be made now rather than allowing things to get worse. Good luck :)