Article: Expansion of New Law in Southeast May Stave Off Black Land Loss

Thomas W. Mitchell, Sarah Stein, and Ann Carpenter recently published an article entitled, Expansion of New Law in Southeast May Stave Off Black Land Loss, Wills, Trusts, & Estates Law ejournal (2022).

Provided below is the abstract to the Article: 

Land and home ownership are significant contributors to the creation of wealth and thus, drivers of intergenerational economic mobility. However, many people who have inherited family property, whether homes or land or other types of real property, are unable to realize these opportunities because of the legal effect of their particular form of property ownership, often called heirs’ property. Those who own such common real property typically are “property rich and cash poor”; lack access to affordable legal services; and do not make wills or other estate plans due to their economic status and sometimes due in part to a distrust of the legal system. These property owners are more at risk than others of losing their property through what is known as a partition sale — a property sale resulting from a dispute between co-owners, often ignited by an outside party with an investment interest in the property in areas experiencing a significant appreciation in real estate values. This article explores the repercussions of heirs’ property ownership and examines the substantial legal reform of partition law in three southeastern states: Florida, Mississippi, and Virginia. Before 2020 when each of these states enacted the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act — the most substantial reform of partition law since the 1800s when states first permitted the remedy of partition by sale — important stakeholders in each state successfully were able to prevent any meaningful reform of partition law to benefit disadvantaged tenancy-in-common owners.