Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Virginia

Re: Who owns the property?

All of the surviving grandchildren likely own an equal share of the property. However, in the event that the property is subject to a court-ordered or other sale, you should be able to claim additional compensation from the sale proceeds for all of the years in which your mother paid the taxes on the property.

Re: Who owns the property?

Each of your grandmother's children inherited an equal share (assuming she was not survived by a spouse who had rights to the property). Assuming standard language in her will, if any of her children predeceased her, their children would have inherited from their grandmother proportionally through their parent. As each heir died, their shares passed to their heirs. So absent wills or surviving spouses, the grandchildren would own it, but not necessarly in equal shares. For example, if there were 2 children and Child 1 (C1) had 1 child (GC1), and C2 had 3 children (GC2, 3 and 4), GC1 would own C1's 50% share, and GC2, 3 and 4 would each own 16.6666% (one third of C2's 50% share). Who paid the taxes is irrelevant, except that the one who paid may be able to claim reimbursement from the other owners.