selling land that has more than 1 person on the deed

[corvairbob]

bob p. mi.
my wife has a lot in upper lower michigan she and her brothers got after her dad died. she started out with a quit claim deed and then a year later put her brothers on it.
2 brothers have since died. anyway we will never use the land and want to sell it to get it out of our lives. we all pay taxes on it and we will never use it. but we have no clue how this will work.
for one she managed to get a year behind and had to go thru the state to get the lien off it. and now she says the state is not clearing it up. but besides that if she sells it does she have to give the dead brothers estate any of the funds? i say yes there estate gets it and she says no. because they never paid into sharing the taxes or subdivision expenses.

also can she get a proxy form and have her brothers fill it out giving her permission to sell the land for what she can get for it and then she splits the moneys up with them? or will she have to get there names off the land and then sell it and then do the write thing and split it up them? so these are some of the questions i have for now

1. a proxy is needed from each sibling to have permission to sell the land for what she can get for.
2. give the dead brothers estate any money, being they have never shared in the taxes or subdivision fees
3. can she get a realtor to sell it and they will take care of everything and then split the moneys?
4. how to declare the income from the sale? if she sells it and gets the money and divides it up, will she have to send out tax forms so her siblings so they are there own responsible parties for paying the taxes income?

any other things i forgot to ask? let me know thanks

 

[justalayman]

She can’t sell her dead brothers shares. Were the deceased’s estates taken through probate? That is where the ownership would have been transferred to whomever was to receive it either due to a will or the laws of intestate succession.

If the estates were never settled, then you have a big problem. The estates must be settled properly. Then, if the new owners wish to sell the land, then can, along with your wife.

 

[corvairbob]

i do not think the dead brothers had any probate proceedings. they did not have any equity before or after they died. they had nothing to their names. they did leave wives one has since died and one is still alive.

so it sounds like this is going to just be a total mess for land that is almost worthless. so how would this affect her credit and the rest of the siblines credit. we have great credit, the rest of her family has good to poor credit. and is almost sounds like it would be better to just let it go back to the state for back unpaid taxes.

she claims her siblings will not be affected by letting it go for taxes being the bills come in her name only. i say they all will be affected.

 

[justalayman]

I don’t know whs

i do not think the dead brothers had any probate proceedings. they did not have any equity before or after they died. they had nothing to their names. they did leave wives one has since died and one is still alive.

so it sounds like this is going to just be a total mess for land that is almost worthless. so how would this affect her credit and the rest of the siblines credit. we have great credit, the rest of her family has good to poor credit. and is almost sounds like it would be better to just let it go back to the state for back unpaid taxes.

she claims her siblings will not be affected by letting it go for taxes being the bills come in her name only. i say they all will be affected.

Unless title was held as joint tenants with rights of survivorship, it sounds like the living sister in law probably owns her deceased husbands share and the heirs of the deceased sister in law probably own the other deceased brothers share.

Yes, you have a huge mess.

Ya lost me on your statement that the deceased brothers didn’t have any equity in the property. They had the same amount of equity as your wife and any other owner. Is there a mortgage on the property?

 

[corvairbob]

Ya lost me on your statement that the deceased brothers didn’t have any equity in the property. They had the same amount of equity as your wife and any other owner. Is there a mortgage on the property? no mortgage

i can only tell you what the wife told me. she said the 2 dead brothers never paid into any of the taxes or association fees. so she figures they have no equity in the land. but just becasue they have there names on the land may give them something.

what we are doing now is asking how bad it will affect our credit if we just let it go for back taxes and take the credit hit. for what the land is worth trying to get this figured out is going to cost us way more than we would get for the land.

and like i said we have the best credit of the rest of her family and we will take the biggest credit hit. so what i did was sent an email to the county the land is in and asked them if we just surrender it back to the county the land is in if they will turn it in as a credit report. and i asked the state treasury department the same question.

at this point it is almost easier to just let it go and forget about it. i figure we can build our credit back if needed.

and i talked to the others that have interest in the lot who are still living on the deed and they said they will sign quit claim deeds. as for the dead brothers families when we show the death certificates to the county the lot is in they may not even bother to post against them at all.

this will be the easiest way to just get this out of our hair. thanks

 

[justalayman]

Your wife seems to be calculating the deceased brothers equity based on what they may owe your wife for what she paid for taxes etc. That isn’t how it works. She may have an action against them, or actually their estates now but she can’t unilaterally assert that claim against their share of the property. If they are all equal shareholders, then they all have an equal share of any money derived from a sale of the property.


Offhand I don’t know that the foreclosure of the land for delinquent taxes would end up on anybody’s credit report. I’ve never investigated the matter for that possibility.

 

[corvairbob]

thanks much i told her that but she is against that. not so much because the brother never did pay into the land but becasue she fails to see the heirs getting anything. to be honest she would not withhold anything from the brothers, she just doesn't to like their side of their families.

we had a talk with one brother last night and because of the mess as you call it, we call it the same thing, if we can't sell it for any amount that would make it worth doing based on legal fees and such we will just all sign quit claims on it and give it back to the county.

the heirs have no clue the land exists and i'm thinking they can't do much if we let it go back.

if for some reason someone here says they can then we'll let it go for back taxes and take the credit hit. i'm not a betting man but money on the table says they will not pursue that action because then we would quit claim it to them and then they would have the mess. i know for sure not many would want to take that action at all for land not worth much. thanks