The problems with “heirs property”

Meghan E.B. Pridemore (Clerk, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the E. Dist. of N.C.) has written a new article entitled Tides, Torrens, and Family Trees, Prob. & Prop., May/June 2009, at 24.

The article discusses some of the problems faced by owners of “Heirs Property.” Heirs property is property that has passed into the hands of numerous heirs through generations of intestate succession. Normally, this creates ownership in the form of a tenancy-in-common. The problem with this type of ownership is that if one owner sells a very small share, then the buyer could force partition, which could be adverse to the interests of the other owners. The article gives some techniques to help protect against partition, as well as some suggestions of changes that could be made in the law to facilitate these goals.