Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Louisiana

Re: Title transfer of propery

Transferring the property to you from the known uncle is not a big problem. If he is going to donate it to you (not take any money), then you could have a donation prepared in which he transferred his undivided 1/3 interest in the property to you. That donation must be in writing, by a Notarial Act, and it must be accepted by you. You will likely need an attorney to draw up that document.

I don't know if your grandfather had a succession proceeding in which the property was conveyed to your father and two uncles, or if your father had a succession opened in which you acquired your father's one-third interest in the property. If none of that occurred (or only some of it occurred), you would need to have the successions opened in order to get good title into you from both your father and your known uncle. You will likely need to hire an attorney to assist you with that matter.

Next comes the really hard part, which deals with the missing uncle. The first thing to do is to try to locate him and either pay for his interest in the property or have him agree to donate his interest in the property to you. If you can't locate him, what you could do would be to file a lawsuit to partition the property. What that means is that the property would then be sold at a Sheriff's sale, with the proceeds being divided between the owners. If you partitioned the property after you acquired your known Uncle's interest, you would receive 2/3 and the missing Uncle would receive 1/3, which would be held by the Registry of the Court for him. The plan would be for you to be the high bidder of the property, so that you would then acquire full ownership of the property. That will be an expensive and time consuming prospect, however, which is why it would be much more preferable to locate the missing uncle. Besides the legal fees, you will be giving up 1/3 of the price you have to pay for the property. There will also be the Sheriff's costs, which will taken out of the purchase price before the funds are distributed to the owners.

If the missing uncle is deceased, then you may be able to open a succession for him. If he had no will and no children or spouse, then both you and your uncle would appear to be his only heirs. You could also acquire his interest that way.