What Does Fair Mean In A Family Land Fight

When siblings inherit a house, the hardest part is not the paperwork, it’s the stalemate. One person wants to keep the property, another wants to sell, and someone ends up paying the taxes and mortgage while the argument drags on. We sit down with attorney Anthony Rabreno to explain the North Carolina partition process that can finally move an inherited property dispute toward a clear outcome.

We walk through the two types of partition you’ll hear in court: partition in kind, where the property is physically divided into separate lots for each heir when that’s actually feasible, and partition by sale, where the court orders the property sold and each co-owner receives their share of the proceeds. We also cover why the court typically uses a neutral, court-appointed commissioner to handle appraisals, surveys, and the sale itself, helping reduce bias and keep the process fair.

Then we get into the questions people ask us every day in elder law and estate administration: Can attorney fees be shared? What about reimbursement for expenses like taxes or mortgage payments? Is a sibling buyout possible before things escalate? If you’re dealing with inherited land, a family home, or co-owned real estate in North Carolina, this conversation gives you a practical map of your options.

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Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Topic

0:02

Good morning everyone. This is attorney Haley Matson with our Elder Law Report. I am here today joined by our newest attorney, Mr. Anthony Rabreno. Hey. So today

What A Partition Means

0:20

our topic of conversation is going to be partitions. Partitions are sales with property. If you and maybe a sibling inherit something and you cannot decide on whether or not you want to keep it or sell it, and you want to sell it, you do have some relief. That's called a partition. Anthony, can you tell us a little bit more about those? Yeah, absolutely. So, like you mentioned, a partition, kind of like how the you know the word goes, it's kind of dividing up your property through the court. So in North Carolina, it's a special proceeding that

Partition In Kind Explained

0:55

you go in front of the clerk of Superior Court, and there's two kinds there's partition in kind and partition by sale. And to explain that a little bit more, partition in kind is what the courts kind of hope for, just means that they'll take the property and they'll split it up if possible into the amount of shares that are for the heirs. So if it's four like physically, like lots, or yeah, pretty much. They'll they'll look at the property, they'll see how many heirs there are. So let's give an example, say it's four heirs. Each of them would get, in theory, if in a perfect world, would get a one-fourth share of the property. So what the court would do is if you go partition in kind, they'll go ahead and they'll split up the property into four different lots to give it to each individual heir. And then once you have that individual lot, you can do whatever you want with it. Very cool. Now that's partition in kind. That's what the courts prefer. If they can't reach that kind of resolution based upon,

When The Court Orders A Sale

1:55

you know, the property being a little too complex, not having enough property to divide and have a one-fourth share that would be viable for each individual heir. The next one is partition by sale, and that's where the court would force the sale of the property, and then each individual heir will get their share of the proceeds. So, again, in this thick, in this case, four heirs, you get one-fourth of the sale price of the home or the property. Very cool. Um, I mean, who who sells the property? Do you choose a realtor or so? Usually it's a court-appointed commissioner who handles the sale of the home. Um,

The Commissioner And Neutral Process

2:35

you know, they want to make sure that there is a neutral third party who is responsible for getting appraisals for the home, you know, doing all the surveying, get making sure that, and I say home, it could also just be a lot of land with nothing on it. They want to make sure that a neutral third party who is not going to have any sort of bias towards one side or the other is making all the determination and ensuring that the sale is done as fair to all parties as possible. Gotcha. That that totally makes sense. Um, what about attorney's fees? Like if I'm bringing this action against maybe my little brother

Attorney Fees Taxes And Reimbursement

3:10

or something, and we're trying to sell, I'm trying to sell my parents' house and I'm forced to bring a partition. Can I recoup those costs? Or maybe if I've been paying taxes by myself or the mortgage by myself, can I recoup any of those costs? Yeah, I mean, it's obviously up to the court, you know, it's within the discretion of the court, but they could order that reasonable attorney's fees or costs be split amongst the owners, and that again will come out of any of the proceeds from the sale of the property. Gotcha. So we just split it basically. Pretty much, yeah. Very cool. Is there a is there

Buyouts Between Siblings

3:45

an opportunity for my little brother to buy me out, or can I buy him out? Is that an option? Yeah, that's definitely an option. I mean, you know, a lot of times and where it's multiple children, you know, sometimes life happens, children move halfway across the country. You gotta, you know, your parents lived here in North Carolina, they pass, you live out in California, you really don't care about the house here. You've got your life set out out there. Your sister, your like in your case, you know, say your brother doesn't want his share of the property. You can come up to me and be like, hey, bro, you know, you don't live here, you don't really have much of a much of a care for this. You mind if I just buy out your share and become the entire owner of the property? More than welcome to do that. That does happen a lot as well. You know, sometimes people don't have a real interest in the property and they just get bought out by a sibling who does have an interest in it. Um, you know, once you get to a partition action, it's mostly because everyone kind of wants their peace and we can't really come to an agreement as to what to do with the property. So then we got to go ahead and have the court intervene and figure out what's the best way to handle it. True. I mean, that sounds like a pretty good remedy for most people who have like disputes about property and wanting to sell it. And I mean, I know I get a lot of clients coming in who have like family land that's full of just giant lots out in the countryside and plenty of heirs, plenty of kids, and so that's definitely an option for them. Um, I think that's pretty cool. So yeah. Thanks. So, other than that, I mean, there's some other reasons why you might want a partition.

When Partitions Help The Most

5:25

Um, if you're getting stuck with a home that one sibling doesn't agree to sell, and there's a mortgage on the home and it needs to be paid, or there's like an estate claim that needs to be paid, or there's something else like that that you could potentially split up the lots and sell only a part of it. I mean, that's going to be a really good idea to have one. Um, just in general, it's a great remedy. Anyone who's a property owner is technically allowed to bring one. So it's really an awesome thing that you can do to protect yourself and your property. So, Anthony, do you have anything else before we head out? No, I mean, like you said, this is a great remedy. And, you know, if you are having a little bit of a family disagreement on how to handle inherited property, this is a good way to ensure that there is a fair um remedy for all parties. You know, the court does a really good job of ensuring that, you know, the decision makers are all neutral, there's no bias for one side, and everyone gets their fair share, either a portion of the property or a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the property. Great. Well, thank you so much, Anthony. It was great to have you on this Elder Law report. I guess we'll

Fair Outcomes And Closing

6:35

see you next time. Absolutely.