On today's On The Beat, Sarah Cline Stevens, Attorney at Law, joins Troy to tell us all about heir property.
Troy: welcome to on the beat, everyone.
I'm troy thompson.
Joining me in the studio today is sarah cline stevens, attorney at law.
And guess what everyone?
Today is something that we need to know a little bit more about and it is heir property.
How are you my friend?
Sarah stevens: i'm good.
How are you today?
Troy: i'm fantastic.
I want everyone to understand there is so many different ways when it comes to inheriting property here.
Let's talk a little bit about in the state of mississippi, heir property.
What is it?
Sarah stevens: heir property is what happens when a person has passed away, but their estate has not been probated or administered in the courts.
It descends to their heirs and then their heirs, but the deceased person's name is still on the deed.
Troy: why is that a bad thing?
Sarah stevens: well, it can become a bad thing if not all of the heirs are participating in the upkeep and maintenance of the property.
If only one heir is paying the taxes or the insurance or maintaining the land, the other heirs maybe aren't asserting their interest and that one heir sometimes gets a little tired of doing that without being compensated.
Or maybe one of the heirs decides, i'd like to build a house on this property and the others don't agree.
In mississippi, any heir that has an interest, no matter how small, can force that property to be sold or divided in kind of, it's possible, but it's not always possible for it to be divided equally.
Troy: well, here's just maybe a layman's question if i may, doesn't the executor of the will take care of it all?
Sarah stevens: well, there's not always a will and maybe there is a will, but maybe you didn't probate it because probate, like we've talked about previously, sometimes can be expensive.
A will's worthless if it's not probated.
It does not pass property if it's not probated.
Troy: all right, how do we fix these problems so one person isn't getting stuck with the burden?
Sarah stevens: well, i think that it's a great idea to keep a list of all of the heirs.
Keep track, keep like a family diary with addresses and contact information for all of your siblings and cousins and things like that.
Anybody that's got an interest in the property.
Try to reach an agreement about who's going to be responsible for these costs and expenses, like maintaining the property or how the person who's paying them is going to be compensated.
Troy: got you.
Sarah stevens: because if you don't have some type of an agreement, anyone could force the property to potentially be sold and it could be sold in an auction style setting on the courthouse steps.
Troy: it's not going to be its value.
Sarah stevens: could be for far less than fair market value.
Troy: we need everyone on the same page is what you're saying.
Sarah stevens: that's right.
It's really essential that everybody knows how to protect their interest in this property because if you just let it go, and you're like, "oh, my sister's taken care of it."
You could actually wind up losing your interest in that property through something called adverse possession.
It's extremely important that you make sure your interest in that property is protected and preserved.
Troy: one of our viewers who knew that we were going to be talking about this, wrote this in.
So if a person is an heir and they have an interest in real property, what should they do?
Explain that to everyone at home.
Real property.
Sarah stevens: there's a difference between personal property, which are things that i thought you can pick up and move versus real property, which is land and everything that is permanently affixed to the land, so the house and things that goes with the real property.
Real property is what descends to the heirs and things personal property does as well, but real property is what we're talking about today.
Heir property is land and houses.
Troy: can any attorney handle this?
Sarah stevens: well, any attorney that has substantial experience in real estate transactions and a good understanding of adverse possession law can help you make sure that your interest is protected.
Troy: all right, here's the best thing.
Two top things for our public to walk away from this.
The list is the first one.
Sarah stevens: that's right.
Troy: get your list together.
And make sure there's a will.
Sarah stevens: well, certainly.
That would be if the person that owns the property and their name individually is still living.
Estate planning is so essential.
Heir property really comes up when there either is no heir or the will has never been probated and it just passes down and down.
Troy: right.
Well, thank you.
You always give us great information.
Sarah stevens: thank you.
Troy: thank you for coming in.
If you want to find out more about sarah cline stevens, there at all is up on the screen.
We'll be back after this short break.
On today's On The Beat, Sarah Cline Stevens, Attorney at Law, joins Troy to tell us all about heir property. For more information,..