Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Virginia

Heir Property

My family owns 29 acres of property that was left to their heirs. This occured over 50 years ago. The oldest sibling has been paying taxes on this property for the 50 yrs. Some members of the family wants to sell it and get their monetary share of the property. The older sibling stopped paying the taxes for 4 or 5 yrs. when other members requested that the property be sold. It was advertised as delinquent by the county and was about to be put on the auction block . The older sibling who had previously paid the taxes consulted an attorney in New Jersey who told her that it would be to her advantage to pay the delinquent taxes of approx. $5000. What advantages does this give her and how does this affect the owernership of the other siblings? Can she take title to the land as her own since she has paid all of the taxes, without notifying the other heirs?


Asked on 5/17/05, 2:35 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: Heir Property

The older sibling would continue to own the same undivided interest share in the whole property which she had before she paid the delinquent taxes on the property, which normally would be determined by the number of sibling heirs, e.g. if there were four altogether, including the one who paid the taxes, the latter would own a 1/4 undivided share interest in the property.

However, at such time that the property is sold either by mutual consent of all the owner heirs or by way of a partition suit and court-ordered sale of the property, the sibling who paid the taxes would then be entitled to have her share of the sale proceeds increased by the amount which she had paid out in taxes while the other siblings who had paid no taxes would have their respective shares of the proceeds diminished accordingly.

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Answered on 5/17/05, 7:26 pm


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