Losing bug out property

Leadchunker

Leadchunker

Undisciplined infidel
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I’m not sure if this is a good place to put this or not, but here goes
My wife’s family has a property in the mountains of NC. Four siblings are on the deed. Two of the siblings have passed, my wife is one of them. I’m now an heir to the property.
My intention was to buy out the other siblings and heirs. Their is a total of 9 heirs to the property. Two of the heirs, which have the smallest percentage are refusing to sell to me or anyone on the planet. They want to build a house on the property. They don’t have a large enough share to allow building. They don’t have the financial ability to get a loan to buy another heir out.
I was going to buy out the other agreeable heirs and force the sale of the property. I planned to buy the rest at that time. Aaaaand the brakes get hit hard.
I have been informed that one of the heirs has filed suit against all of us to have the property auctioned off at the courthouse. I was also informed that none of the heirs could participate in the auction. I was also informed that if the property sold for 15k that it was final and that would be split between the heirs. I’m calling bs. I’m not interested in paying the heirs a large sum of money and end up with 1/8 of 15k.
Does anyone have any suggestions on who/where/attorney/gov dept to talk to in Haywood county.
Thanks for any suggestions.
 
If this doesn’t work out in my favor I’ll need to move my assets to a secure storage facility in the same area. I need recommendations for a good storage company.
 
Looking at this as someone with no emotional investment, would be easier to just buy another piece of land some where and not deal with this BS?
 
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Leadchunker said:
I’m not sure if this is a good place to put this or not, but here goes
My wife’s family has a property in the mountains of NC. Four siblings are on the deed. Two of the siblings have passed, my wife is one of them. I’m now an heir to the property.
My intention was to buy out the other siblings and heirs. Their is a total of 9 heirs to the property. Two of the heirs, which have the smallest percentage are refusing to sell to me or anyone on the planet. They want to build a house on the property. They don’t have a large enough share to allow building. They don’t have the financial ability to get a loan to buy another heir out.
I was going to buy out the other agreeable heirs and force the sale of the property. I planned to buy the rest at that time. Aaaaand the brakes get hit hard.
I have been informed that one of the heirs has filed suit against all of us to have the property auctioned off at the courthouse. I was also informed that none of the heirs could participate in the auction. I was also informed that if the property sold for 15k that it was final and that would be split between the heirs. I’m calling bs. I’m not interested in paying the heirs a large sum of money and end up with 1/8 of 15k.
Does anyone have any suggestions on who/where/attorney/gov dept to talk to in Haywood county.
Thanks for any suggestions.
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Stupid question on my part, and I only ask because I know someone in a very similar situation, but how are you an heir to another family's inheritance?

It's totally none of my business, and i my only intention is to satisfy my own curiosity. So if I need to stay in my lane, add the younger generations say, I'll move back over.

That being said, I hate to hear this is going on. Things sound tough enough, already.
 
LeeMajors said:
Tell me when and where. Supply the $$ and I'll buy it for you.
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This would be my Plan C for sure. Have your closest friend buy it then sell it to you. Or have them buy it on behalf of a trust and appoint you to the trust then remove themselves.
 
kcult said:
Stupid question on my part, and I only ask because I know someone in a very similar situation, but how are you an heir to another family's inheritance?

It's totally none of my business, and i my only intention is to satisfy my own curiosity. So if I need to stay in my lane, add the younger generations say, I'll move back over.

That being said, I hate to hear this is going on. Things sound tough enough, already.
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My wife’s name is on the deed. She went to be with the Lord a year ago today. NC law states I’m an heir and so are my children.
 
Climberman said:
Why are you not allowed to participate in the auction again? What if you used an agent at the auction?
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I’m not sure. That’s why I started this thread to hopefully get guided in the right direction. It doesn’t seem legal to keep any of the heirs from participating in the auction. Imho.
 
Is this property a parcel that a developer would be interested in (Haywood Co does have a couple very desirable rec areas like Waterville and Junaluska) that would drive up the price? If it is someone in the group has been talking and knows who’s planning on making extra money.

Are your kids direct heirs to the property and not eligible to bid or just you? That might be a decent route if one of them can bid.
 
Yeah that sounds like some bs.

Sounds like It's already been parceled out to to individuals as to who has which piece. Not even "these 9 folks have a claim".

So no idea how a single owner could have the county take it all from the other 8 so no has anything even if it was all nine attempting to formalize who gets what...

Real estate attorney time for sure.
 
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I'm terribly sorry you lost your wife.

As others have said contact an attorney don't follow what the county says or someone else's attorney.
My grandmother has land tied up in onslow county that she became an hier to when her husband (my pa) died in 2020. Onslow county divided up the property into different hiers in 2016 ish. All the hiers agreed and signed paperwork. Then in 2018 onslow county informed them that it was not legitimate and the hiers included great grandchildren that did not agree to the division. In 2022 onslow county foreclosed on one of the properties and did not list EVERY hier on the foreclosure documentation. In our experience some attorneys won't touch family land garbage when it is really bad.
 
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Let us know how this pans out. I was told a long time ago I was the only heir to a 167 acre parcel in the foot hills and now I'm being told I am 1/2 heir. That is going to cause nothing but problems.
 
My wife has been paying the taxes for the past 15 years. I paid the taxes last year. I just got the new tax bill for this coming year on Monday.
I realize I need a real estate attorney. I had one and he changed his mind and didn’t want to handle the case.
I was hoping someone here knew someone or had a recommendation.
 
If the property is forced to sell I think you can put a lien on the property for the amount of taxes your wife has paid as well. Might help with the annoyance/heart break of having to find another property. Good luck with your search on an attorney. It is an awful process to deal with.
 
Leadchunker said:
If this doesn’t work out in my favor I’ll need to move my assets to a secure storage facility in the same area. I need recommendations for a good storage company.
Click to expand...

What area and how big?

I'll leave the above but Haywood county, how big do you need? I have an empty 5x10 that I'm holding for college stuff in the summers. If you need bigger hit up Greg at Great Smokies Storage. They just had some come open. He's a good friend of mine. If you talk to him tell him Tex sent you.


Great Smokies Storage: Storage Facility In Waynesville NC

Great Smokies Storage is a storage facility that provides storage in Waynesville, NC. We offer a variety of storage sizes at our storage facility.
www.greatsmokiesstorage.com www.greatsmokiesstorage.com
 
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First off, what type of deed do you have on the property? Joint tenant with survivorship or something else? That may impact your rights.
Leadchunker said:
I have been informed that one of the heirs has filed suit against all of us to have the property auctioned off at the courthouse.
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How were you informed? Were you served lawsuit papers or something else?

I seriously doubt it is as simple as they just "file a suit" and automatically you're your property is sold at auction. I doubt even more that the property owners would be denied the ability to bid on it. When someone files a lawsuit there is a very slow process that gets worked through the court system and at a minimum the defending party or parties get to enter an official response. Then it is likely that several motions would be made by one or more parties, the judge would want to schedule hearings for the motions and then deliberate on them, there would be a period of evidentiary discovery, etc. and a bunch of stuff that would ultimately lead up to a jury or bench trial which would be your right.

Pushing the case through litigation would be VERY expensive and if they did actually file suit, they may be trying to intimidate the other parties and playing a game of chicken.

Bottom line, you need an attorney. I can recommend a good real estate attorney but they're not in your area, which unless you're going through litigation that would require them to be in court wouldn't likely be a problem these days, but one should definitely be able to answer as to whether or not what you've heard holds any water.
 
Leadchunker said:
My wife has been paying the taxes for the past 15 years. I paid the taxes last year. I just got the new tax bill for this coming year on Monday.
I realize I need a real estate attorney. I had one and he changed his mind and didn’t want to handle the case.
I was hoping someone here knew someone or had a recommendation.
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You have been paying taxes on all the property for the last 15 years?
Or just what is in your wife's name?
Pay the current taxes now.

Hope you find an attorney soon.
 
I have been through this. The process is called a petition to partition. https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/PDF/ByChapter/Chapter_46A.pdf The County Clerk of Court tries to find a way to make an equitable split of the property. If they can't do that then 1 or more commissioners are assigned.

A realtor was chosen to list the property. Current owners could put in offers to buy the property. If they did they would have a credit towards the cost according to their ownership percentage.

If you have been the paying taxes above and beyond your share you can seek compensation through this process for the last 10 years with interest.

If you have made improvements to the property you can seek compensation for that cost as well.

I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. This was just my experience.

You definitely need a lawyer.


I will never own land with anyone other than my wife ever again.
 
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Hmmm...ain't experienced in buying realestate, but this definitely sounds like attorney time.

In legal matters, I'm sure these things can be approached several different ways, some of a more "agressive takeover" type than others, and may vary by degrees in how the other people react to this supposed court action. If nobody challenges it, then it may become a "done deal", and after that you may easily spend far more trying to get your share out of it.

Get an attorney who can get the REAL scoop on what's happening (if anything) and how to toss a monkey wrench in it in your favor.


I did consider buying a house that belonged to one of my wife's aunt/uncles who passed away several years ago. But I gave that up as a pipe dream for a couple reasons.

One was that the family members that still owned the house and property had some who wanted a totally unreasonable amount of money for the property. While I'm all about an awesome deal, I'm the kind of guy happy with a fair market value price. Raking me over the coals because they're greedy SOBs wouldn't fly.

The other is the simple fact that it was part of her family and I just didn't want to deal with all the stupid family baggage that would have come with it. Like, for example, how any little change I'd want to make to the property would result in some frickin' drama scene, and quote honestly a huge chunk of that would have been from my wife. "Can't change this because (stupid reasons)".

So I stayed away from it.
 
You aren’t getting the whole story, and you’ll never know the facts without an attorney.

Good news is that you don’t need a great attorney at this point, just someone to take what you’ve been told/given and tell you what up. Just pick a local attorney that’s been in town a long time.
 
How were you informed? Have you been served papers?
 
Following... have issues with property... biggest hurdle is its in my grandfather's name. He passed in 1964; no death certificate to be found. The state's answer is to get a statement from the attending physician and another witness. The attending was old as dirt when grandpa passed; the state had no other suggestions.

Then there were 4 brothers; I have signatures transferring interest from dad and one brother.

One brother's daughter doesn't want to sign. The other married a woman with 8 kids. Uncle died, widow remarried. Now she and hubby are gone; no clue where the 8 kids are. One attorney said they have no interests; another said they do.

Dad and then I have paid the taxes since 1964... it's not much but I'd like to get it sorted out but the legal fees would easily exceed the value of the property.

SMH... shouldn't be this complicated.

Wife sent photocopy of grandfather's death notice in the paper and picture of his headstone. Lady at state said that didn't prove anything; it could be false without doctor signature. My wife said " You got me. In 1964 when we were children we planted this newspaper account and set up a fake headstone so that 50 years later we could make a fraudulent claim to title of the land..."

I told her if grandfather isn't dead then they need to send his back social security payments...
 
Car0linab0y said:
Following... have issues with property... biggest hurdle is its in my grandfather's name. He passed in 1964; no death certificate to be found. The state's answer is to get a statement from the attending physician and another witness. The attending was old as dirt when grandpa passed; the state had no other suggestions.

Then there were 4 brothers; I have signatures transferring interest from dad and one brother.

One brother's daughter doesn't want to sign. The other married a woman with 8 kids. Uncle died, widow remarried. Now she and hubby are gone; no clue where the 8 kids are. One attorney said they have no interests; another said they do.

Dad and then I have paid the taxes since 1964... it's not much but I'd like to get it sorted out but the legal fees would easily exceed the value of the property.

SMH... shouldn't be this complicated.

Wife sent photocopy of grandfather's death notice in the paper and picture of his headstone. Lady at state said that didn't prove anything; it could be false without doctor signature. My wife said " You got me. In 1964 when we were children we planted this newspaper account and set up a fake headstone so that 50 years later we could make a fraudulent claim to title of the land..."

I told her if grandfather isn't dead then they need to send his back social security payments...
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If the state is NC, have you tried vital records? https://vitalrecords.nc.gov/order.htm

They are almost always filed with the state not long after death.

Family is hard. I have at least one brother that’s going to make my mother’s estate very difficult.
 
JimB said:
If the state is NC, have you tried vital records? https://vitalrecords.nc.gov/order.htm

They are almost always filed with the state not long after death.

Family is hard. I have at least one brother that’s going to make my mother’s estate very difficult.
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Yes... my wife spend most of 2 days on the phone with them. They insisted he couldn't have died in NC or they would have the records. When we sent the death notice from the newspaper saying he died in Sea Level hospital they said that wasn't an official document.
A few years after his death Duke bought the hospital. A nice lady spent a couple of days trying to research old records but they didn't have anything that far back.
 
Car0linab0y said:
Following... have issues with property... biggest hurdle is its in my grandfather's name. He passed in 1964; no death certificate to be found. The state's answer is to get a statement from the attending physician and another witness. The attending was old as dirt when grandpa passed; the state had no other suggestions.

Then there were 4 brothers; I have signatures transferring interest from dad and one brother.

One brother's daughter doesn't want to sign. The other married a woman with 8 kids. Uncle died, widow remarried. Now she and hubby are gone; no clue where the 8 kids are. One attorney said they have no interests; another said they do.

Dad and then I have paid the taxes since 1964... it's not much but I'd like to get it sorted out but the legal fees would easily exceed the value of the property.

SMH... shouldn't be this complicated.

Wife sent photocopy of grandfather's death notice in the paper and picture of his headstone. Lady at state said that didn't prove anything; it could be false without doctor signature. My wife said " You got me. In 1964 when we were children we planted this newspaper account and set up a fake headstone so that 50 years later we could make a fraudulent claim to title of the land..."

I told her if grandfather isn't dead then they need to send his back social security payments...
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If he died in 1964, there should be a copy at the register of deeds of the county he passed away in. I just renewed my subscription on Ancestry.com and if you want me to look on there, send me a PM with as much information as you have and I'll see what I can find. I have looked at a bunch of distant family death certificates today.

Most NC counties started keeping records, birth and death certificates, in the early 1900's.
 
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OP you may want to consider a ”quiet title action,” or maybe that’s what someone else has started.

When title is a jumbled mess someone can file a quiet title action with the county court. The plaintiff lists everyone that they know that might have a claim, and then they list a john/jane doe to cover everyone else. Folks get served, the court considers the claims, title gets resolved. You probably don’t end up owning it, but at least you figure out who does.
 
Families aren’t they fun.

If this land is swamp land of 3 acres, I wouldn’t even bother. If it’s 150 of prime forest, yeah than maybe an attorney might be worth it.

You must have spent a bunch of time pissing off the family if this is the way they want to handle it. Auctions suck. 😜
 
Leadchunker said:
I’m not sure if this is a good place to put this or not, but here goes
My wife’s family has a property in the mountains of NC. Four siblings are on the deed. Two of the siblings have passed, my wife is one of them. I’m now an heir to the property.
My intention was to buy out the other siblings and heirs. Their is a total of 9 heirs to the property. Two of the heirs, which have the smallest percentage are refusing to sell to me or anyone on the planet. They want to build a house on the property. They don’t have a large enough share to allow building. They don’t have the financial ability to get a loan to buy another heir out.
I was going to buy out the other agreeable heirs and force the sale of the property. I planned to buy the rest at that time. Aaaaand the brakes get hit hard.
I have been informed that one of the heirs has filed suit against all of us to have the property auctioned off at the courthouse. I was also informed that none of the heirs could participate in the auction. I was also informed that if the property sold for 15k that it was final and that would be split between the heirs. I’m calling bs. I’m not interested in paying the heirs a large sum of money and end up with 1/8 of 15k.
Does anyone have any suggestions on who/where/attorney/gov dept to talk to in Haywood county.
Thanks for any suggestions.
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Do you have a copy of the deed, or plat etc to look up real property records? Plenty of possibility there but where it falls apart for me is “none of the heirs can participate. That would almost definitely have to be in the deed etc to enforce otherwise there’s zero reason you couldn’t be an interested party…
 
I'm here for you!
Tell me where to be and when to be there.

To add some insult it that injury, Leadchunker isn't telling y'all that he has maintained and done major repairs to the property for years with minimal (none, iirc) help physical or monetary.

I'm here for you.
 
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