WELCOME TO A PROBATE WEBINAR!

One of the reasons I am passionate about educating families about probate property is because I have seen how quickly a probate issue can become a real estate litigation issue. Mom dies and leaves a house to four children. One says, “I live here and I’m not leaving.” Another says, “I want to sell and get my money.” Another insists, “This is Grandma’s house and we are never selling it.” Meanwhile, someone is paying the taxes, insurance, utilities, and repairs and expects to be reimbursed. These disagreements can eventually lead to partition actions and costly litigation.

The problem can become even more complicated when families do nothing for generations. One heir dies, then another dies, and ownership becomes divided among children, grandchildren, cousins, and sometimes people who have never even seen the property. This is also where investors can enter the picture. An investor may locate an heir and offer cash for that heir’s interest. Once that interest is sold, the family may suddenly find itself owning property with a stranger who has legal rights as a co-owner and may seek a buyout, sale, or partition. Developers may be particularly interested when the property has become valuable because of its location. What a family sees as “Grandma’s land,” a developer may see as waterfront property, buildable lots, commercial property, or land that could be assembled with surrounding parcels.  

That is one reason I encourage people to watch the documentary Silver Dollar Road. It follows the Reels family’s fight over North Carolina waterfront heirs’ property that had been in their family for generations. During that dispute, family members Melvin Davis and Licurtis Reels ultimately spent approximately eight years in jail for civil contempt after refusing to comply with a court order requiring them to leave the land.

That story happened and the lesson is important: family history and emotional attachment alone do not resolve legal ownership. Title matters. Probate matters. Deeds matter. And understanding your rights as a co-owner matters. My goal with these webinars is to help families recognize these issues while they still have choices before an unresolved inheritance becomes a title problem, before an outsider becomes a co-owner, and before family members find themselves on opposite sides of a courtroom.