When heirs disagree about the house

Good to know first: you don't need to do any of this to ask us for a number, and a title company handles the closing paperwork. This page is here if you want the background.

First: are they owners yet?

Everything below is about co-owners. While an estate is open, the person with authority is usually the personal representative, not the group of heirs. If there is a representative, start with that person. If the family can't agree on who it should be, that is a job for a probate attorney and possibly the court.

What to try first

1. Get one number everyone can see. Fights over a house are often fights over what it's worth. An appraisal, a listing agent's opinion, or a written offer gives everyone the same figure to argue from.
2. Ask who wants to keep it. A buyout lets one heir keep the house and pays the others their share. It is easier to talk about before the house has sat empty through a winter.
3. Agree on the plan in writing. Who pays the taxes and insurance while it sits, who has keys, what gets taken from the house, and when you'd sell. Even a short signed note heads off a lot.
4. Agree on one sale. Selling the whole house and dividing what's left is the plain way out, with an agent or a direct sale. If an estate is open, debts and claims come first: someone paid improperly from an estate may have to give it back. Ask the attorney before the money moves.
5. Then see an attorney. Mediation is worth asking about. A partition case is there if nothing else works.

What a court can do

A house usually can't be split in two, which is why people expect these to end in a sale. A forced sale is slower, costs attorney fees, and takes control away from everyone. How long or how much depends on the case, so ask the attorney for both.

What if one heir lives in the house?

Living there doesn't by itself give them the whole house. But it changes things.

• Taxes: in Minnesota, a child of the owner living there during probate can keep relative-homestead classification until probate is done. Selling or moving could change that.
• Medical Assistance: a sibling or child who lived there and met the care rules may have a different path in the state's claim.
• Getting them out: an heir living in the house isn't an ordinary tenant, and we aren't going to guess at it for your family. Don't change the locks or shut off the heat. Ask an attorney how to do it the right way.

What if one heir can't be found?

A missing heir doesn't have to freeze everything, but it needs a legal step we can't do for you. The personal representative and their attorney are the ones to ask. The title company will want this settled before anything closes.

Where we come in, if at all

We can give the family one written offer on the whole house, which you can all look at and which can go to your attorney. It doesn't settle who gets what. The title company pays out what the closing paperwork says, after anything owed. Who gets what is for the representative and your attorney. If you don't agree, a buyer's offer won't fix that. We'd only be one more number on the table.