The Georgia Heirs Property Law Center, Inc.: Addressing Tangled Title and Economic Security for Georgians

Abstract

For each piece of heirs property, whether it is a home or a tract of land, there are multiple legal owners (usually descendants in a family), and no single owner can make major decisions for the property without everyone's agreement. Heirs property, which can be created with or without a will, is equivalent to having a pile of money in a glass box; a family can see their asset but cannot access its equity. For municipalities, this means that billions of dollars in valuable tax-appraised land is owned by a group of individuals where no one person has the legal authority to manage the property in such a way that benefits the family, let alone the tax base.

Parent Publication

• Heirs’ property and land fractionation: fostering stable ownership to prevent land loss and abandonment

Citation

StipeMaas, Skipper G. 2019. The Georgia Heirs Property Law Center, Inc.: Addressing Tangled Title and Economic Security for Georgians. In: Gaither, Cassandra J.; Carpenter, Ann; Lloyd McCurty, Tracy; Toering, Sara, eds. Heirs’ property and land fractionation: fostering stable ownership to prevent land loss and abandonment: proceedings of the meeting; 2017 June 15; Atlanta, GA. e-Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-244. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 98-104.