Re: Texas land ownership question

"Zen Cohen" <aturny@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
(snip)
First, her getting a letter returned undelivered is not necessarily a big
deal. I suspect he would not be too hard to track down with a little more
research.

Thanks for such an informative reply.

You are almost certainly correct. I would be surprised if he has left
the area and he's probably still listed in the phone book. For a
variety of personal reasons the whole situation is emotionally
stressful and the prospect of tracking him down to make an issue of
the taxes isn't very appealing to mom (or me, for that matter). I
wouldn't put it past him to have let the contact lapse on purpose just
to annoy us.


If your mom wants to make sure not to lose the property, she should continue
paying the taxes. She will have a right to contribution for her co-owner's
share, which she can take from the proceeds of an eventual sale of the land
or timber.

She can certainly pay the taxes. It's only ~$500 a year. So there is
no danger of failing to pay them. It's more a matter of fairness than
anything else. Do you know how many years back she can go in terms of
claiming his share of the taxes? Is this the same as any other debt
that would be subject to a statute of limitations?


She is probably a "tenant in common" with the other owner. As such, I
believe that she has a right and authority to sell timber from the property,
though she probably has to account to him for any net income (offset by
taxes and other legit expenses). If she and the other guy hold the property
as "joint tenants with right of survivorship" and the other guy is dead,
then she gets his full ownership interest simply by operation of law.

To expand slightly on the circumstances, 100% interest was held by my
great-grandmother. Upon her death, the interest was split between my
father and his sister. Later, my father died and his interest went to
my mother and a fews years after that, his sister died and her
interest went to her husband.

You are saying that she can probably sell timber, but ought to reserve
half the proceeds in the event that he turns up?


If she can't find the guy, there are a couple possible options that I can
think of, but as another poster mentioned, she should go to an attorney to
decide what she's actually going to do.

Yes, we're going to go consult an attorney next week. I just wanted
to see what this group had to say on the subject. It isn't really an
urgent issue for us. It's just a source of stress for her and
frustration for me and his decision to move while making no effort to
leave us a way of contacting him combined with a recent inquiry
regarding purchasing the property has us in a mood to find out exactly
what options there are for resolving the matter.


First, in TX, a co-owner has a right to judicial partition of the land.
That probably means that she could have the property split into two tracts,
with each of them owning 100% interest in one of the two tracts. This can
probably be done without his presence but the court will likely have to
appoint an attorney ad litem for him, and this can run into thousands of
dollars.

That's an option we were aware of - and the likely expense. When my
father died my mother asked about this option and her lawyer at the
time said it was expensive and it would be better to wait and see if
my aunt would initiate such an action herself. So we have let the
situation lie for about ten years now with nothing much happening to
really upset the cart until she couldn't reach him this year for his
share of the taxes.


She can also try to "oust" the co-tenant to set the clock running on the
applicable adverse possession statute of limitations, at the end of which
she would take full ownership, provided she can meet the elements for such a
claim. It's hard to oust a co-tenant where no one is occupying the land,
though, but it can be done.

Have you read the procedure outlined by McGyver? Does that sound
about right in Texas or are there state specific obstacles to such a
course?

One of the things my mother has considered is just donating her
interest in the land to some charitable organization - preferably one
that would have an interest in keeping the land in its currently
pretty unspoiled condition. The land is in the East Texas piney woods
not far from Woodville, for anyone who might know something about
this.

That's a pretty emotional response, I think. Certainly she wouldn't
receive much, if any, financial benefit from that sort of tactic and
I'm unsure what impact it would really have on his own ownership
interest. However, it does have a certain spiteful appeal to it.

Thanks again,

Rusty
.

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