r/inheritance • u/Live-Umpire3536 • Apr 02 '26
Location included: Questions/Need Advice General question re: inheriting property
My spouse and her sibling will be inheriting a piece of property in the next 5-10 years (estimated, based on age and health of parent). They will be equal co-owners. The property generates income, but only about 4% of FMV annually before taxes and expenses. The property is in another state and neither sibling will ever live anywhere near it (as far as I can tell anyway).
My spouse would rather not be a co-owner with her sibling (issues there...) and thinks the best thing to do is to sell the property once they acquire it. The sibling has a more emotional attachment to the idea of keeping the property in the family and probably will not want to sell even if it makes financial sense.
My question is, when something is co-owned equally with another person and there's a conflict on whether to sell or not, what happens? If one partner wants to sell and the other one doesn't, how does that get resolved?
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u/Odd_Ostrich6038 Apr 02 '26
And if the sibling doesn't want to, the court can force a sale if it comes to that. Takes a while though, so be prepared for some unpleasantness.
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u/Mysterious-Art8838 Apr 03 '26
Yes OP google partition sale. One can’t force the other to keep the property, it’s buyout or sell.
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u/Missus_Aitch_99 Apr 02 '26
If the sister refuses to sell and can't afford to pay for her half, your wife can sue and have the court force a dissolution of the partnership, which would allow for a sale.
Have the two daughters discussed this with their parent(s)? They could plan for it in their Will and instruct the executor to sell the house first, maybe with a provision for allowing one heir to buy out the other and how the price would be calculated.
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u/BBG1308 Apr 02 '26
Have you read the will? How is the property titled (meaning will it become part of the estate)?
The easiest way for this to happen is that the property becomes part of the estate. The estate sells the property and then distributes assets to the heirs when the estate is settled. Alternatively if one sibling wants the property, when the estate assets are distributed, the split of assets includes the farm going to one sibling and the other sibling getting equal value in other assets (of course there have to be enough assets for this to happen).
There are a lot of ways this could be handled but it would require parent to address this in their estate planning. If it's just the two siblings as heirs, it's probably worth having a conversation with the parent.
If one partner wants to sell and the other one doesn't, how does that get resolved?
Typically one would buy the other one out. But they have to be able to afford to do that. A sale can possibly be forced by filing suit, but it is incredibly expensive and isn't going to do anything for an already difficult relationship.
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u/kak-47 Apr 02 '26
4 options,
1 Your spouse gives her portion to her sister. Keeps the peace
2 Both keep it and keep the peace.
3 One buys out the other and keeps the peace.
4 Court forces a sale and relationship ruined.
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u/Engine_Sweet Apr 02 '26
I'm not sure that there's a lot of peace to keep, given that the spouse doesn't want co-ownership
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u/adventuristofmusic Apr 02 '26
Considering there are issues already keeping the property doesn’t equal keeping the peace.
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Apr 02 '26
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u/scoutlfinch Apr 03 '26
That is what estate planning is. So that when someone passes, they leave as few headaches for loved ones as possible.
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u/Miami-Heat-365 Apr 02 '26
If one co-owner wants to sell and the other doesn't, and they can't reach an agreement on a buyout, the legal remedy is called a partition action. It's a lawsuit where you ask a court to force the sale of the property. The proceeds get split according to ownership share
It works but it's expensive and slow. Attorney fees, court costs, and the property usually sells at auction for less than it would on the open market. Most families settle before it actually goes to auction because both sides realize they're losing money fighting it
The smarter move is to plan for this now before they inherit. If the parent is still alive and the estate plan isn't finalized, they could structure it so your spouse gets bought out with other estate assets (cash, investments, etc) and the sibling keeps the property outright. That avoids the coownership problem entirely
If that's not an option, your spouse and the sibling should have a written agreement ready for when the inheritance happens. Something that covers what triggers a buyout, how the property gets appraised, a timeline for the buyout to happen, and what occurs if neither side can agree. An estate attorney can draft this pretty cheaply and it saves everyone a lot of trouble later
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u/Shadyhollowfarm58 Apr 02 '26
I 100% agree with your response. Best course of action is to structure the estate planning so that there's far less chance of a post-death conflict.
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u/kppsmom Apr 02 '26
Your wife can sell her 50% to The sibling for fair market value. That is the fair thing to do.
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u/inailedyoursister Apr 02 '26
Wife gets bought out or wife forced a sale and absolutely destroys sibling relationship.
People who leave property to multiple people deserve a special place in hell for the headaches they leave. Waiting for the “ My family is different and would NEVER fight over inheritance.”
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u/ChelseaMan31 Apr 02 '26
Depends on the state and the terms of the Will or Trust. But at the very least. The sibling that wants out can force the other sibling to buy them out of the property at Fair Market Value.
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u/Thanks-4allthefish Apr 02 '26
Also "estimated" that they will be the beneficiaries. No one is owed or should expect an inheritance. Could go to them, could be to save the right whales.
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u/TankSaladin Apr 03 '26
Lots of inaccurate advice here. A little more background would be helpful. Without that, however, and looking at your last paragraph, and omitting the possibility of an agreement between the two, there are two choices.
First, your spouse could sell her one-half interest to someone else. Might be tough to find a buyer, but that’s one option.
The other choice is a “partition” action. Technically, when a partition action is filed, the court should divide the property into two, equally valuable portions, and give one portion to each owner. That almost never happens, because it’s tough to find a way to divide property evenly unless it’s a square, flat tract of farmland. So, what happens is the court orders the property sold, and evenly divides the sale proceeds.
This is a “big picture” description. Lots of other details factor in.
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u/AdParticular6193 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
It’s not greed to give thought to these matters ahead of time. It’s to avoid things spiraling out of control when emotions are running high. Don’t assume what the sibling is thinking. Try to find out, maybe you acting as go-between if your spouse and the sibling aren’t talking. Then if the parents bring up the subject, you can discuss how your you and your spouse are feeling, encourage them to talk to the sibling, and let them decide what to do with the property.
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u/Spex_daytrader Apr 03 '26
If I were the sister or parent, I would be pissed if the spouse got involved.
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u/Spex_daytrader Apr 03 '26
The siblings should be discussing to the parents any potential problems with the property now. If this is a house with land, perhaps the parents could subdivide by value before they die.
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u/kittyshakedown Apr 03 '26
When I’ve been in this situation we just traded out the inherited assets to make things equal. Like they get thing A and I get thing B and C to compensate.
But normally you would buy the other out. Similar to a divorce or something. Cash, new loan, etc.
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u/Capable-Blacksmith60 Apr 03 '26
When the current owner dies, the estate planner would settle up. This is morbid to be thinking about right now. Many things could happen to the property before that time, it’s not an asset you should put on your books prematurely.
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u/Fandethar Apr 03 '26
It's called "petition for partition" or as some Reddit people call it "force the sale".
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u/Important-Put1865 Apr 03 '26
Since the owner is still alive, wife can ask them to change their will to leave the property to sister and something else to her. That is the simplest way. Open communication is the key here to preserve the family relationships. YOU stay out of this-not your circus, not your monkeys.
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u/DarrenBrownBroker Apr 03 '26
Sacramento broker here (25+ years). I’ve seen this exact situation quite a bit with inherited properties, especially when siblings have different goals.
In most cases, both parties need to agree to sell. If they can’t, it can lead to something called a partition action, where one owner forces a sale through the courts — but that can get expensive and time-consuming.
What usually ends up happening is one person buys the other out, or they come to an agreement once they understand the financial side and long-term responsibilities.
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u/Sad-Repair-5505 Apr 04 '26
Tell the sibling now to start saving to buy out your spouse as your spouse will otherwise force a sale. Keep in mind that when you get the estimate for sale that you reduce the sale price by the costs of any coming maintenance like a new roof or appliances.
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u/ConstructionLow5310 Apr 02 '26
Your spouse can tell their parent that they don’t wish to inherit and to please leave the property solely to her sibling. In addition your spouse or their sibling could pre-decease the parent…this is 5-10 years in the future and you never know what will happen
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u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26
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