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Can you buy/sell someones interest in a shared piece of property?
The situation - the mother owned a large piece of land. She past away, and now each child has one 6th interest in that property (the estate was never settled, from a long time ago). 5 of the 6 children want to keep the land in a trust so it does not get developed. One however wants his financial share of the property, and has petitioned (and was granted) a motion to force the sale of the property.
The son of one of the 6 children is interested in purchasing the 1/6th share that the one who wants to sell. Is is legally possible for that one child to sell his interest to someone else? This is the state of Massachusetts, btw.
You stated that the tentative seller was granted a motion to force the sale the property. Who granted him that right? If it was a court of appropriate jurisdiction, then your question has been answered.
If the property is held by a trust with six as beneficiaries, the language of the trust agreement dictates how sales will happen. A court order would be required to force a sale or a partition. If the property is owned by the six as tenants in common, then any owner can share there 1/6 interest to another person unless there is written agreement stating otherwise. If the property is owned as joint tenants, then a court may convert the joint tenancy into a tenancy in common (partition) or a court could order the property be sold and the proceeds split. So, how the land is held and titled will dictate the process.
is there a particular reason that you didn't keep this in your original topic?
did we ever get an answer to how the transfer from the deceased to the current generation occurred?
as the guy says above, it all depends on what the will or subsequent legal docs say. Yes, you can sell a 1/6 interest to any party that meets the criteria of the docs - one of which might often be "as approved by a vote of the other 5".
Massachusetts likely adopts the law of lis pendens which nullifies the creation of any new interest in real property once an action in partition or foreclosure is commenced. Only a qualified MA title attorney will give you a reliable answer to this question, but for the value of free legal advice, I would doubt that anything can be done at this point without the Court's approval.
You also have the difficulty in establishing the value of that 1/6th share. If he thinks his 1/6th is worth 1M but the entire property is only worth 900K, what will happen?
In a partition action, the Court can physically partition the property but rarely does so. Only unimproved farm land ends up physically partitioned. What happens is that a receiver is appointed to conduct a sale. If everyone agrees he just sells it. If not, typically there is an in-court auction. Any time this is going on, the case can be settlement with the disgruntled co-owner getting bought out.
It is all land, no buildings. Mostly woods. It is in the hands of a court appointed attorney. The original requested price was high - the attorney handling the case requested and got approval to sell it for $600k or more. The one person bringing the suit was claiming to be speaking on behalf of several inheritors, but has now been discovered to be speaking only on his own behalf.
The person seeking to buy out that person's share is not currently an inheritor, though his father is. His concern is that if he ends up spending money to pay off the guy who is initiating the case, he wants a share of the property (which everyone is agreeable to). He does not have a lawyer yet, and advice has been a bit confusing.
Can you buy/sell someones interest in a shared piece of property?
The situation - the mother owned a large piece of land. She past away, and now each child has one 6th interest in that property (the estate was never settled, from a long time ago). 5 of the 6 children want to keep the land in a trust so it does not get developed. One however wants his financial share of the property, and has petitioned (and was granted) a motion to force the sale of the property.
The son of one of the 6 children is interested in purchasing the 1/6th share that the one who wants to sell. Is is legally possible for that one child to sell his interest to someone else? This is the state of Massachusetts, btw.
Can you buy the share? Sure. Why don't you ask these questions of your estate attorney? All estates have to be settled. You said it was never settled years ago. Well, you'll all have to settle it at some point!
The person seeking to buy out that person's share is not currently an inheritor, though his father is. His concern is that if he ends up spending money to pay off the guy who is initiating the case, he wants a share of the property (which everyone is agreeable to). He does not have a lawyer yet, and advice has been a bit confusing.
He needs to hire his own attorney. Free legal advice is completely worth what you pay for it!
Yes, it is entirely possible to buy and sell shares in this property. We did it in my own family.
It will just take agreement between the parties on price, and an attorney to write it up. And money. Worth spending a little for a good attorney, knowledgeable in estates, real estate, and contracts.
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