When someone dies without a will, their land typically goes to family. It becomes so called “heirs' property.” However, if relatives can’t decide what to do with it, families could wind up in court, and the judge could place the land up for auction. Rep. Loranne Ausley (D-Tallahassee) says often this results in families losing their property. So, she’s backing a bill to give courts a framework when dealing with these cases.
Heirs' property can have multiple owners and any co-owner can force a sale of the land. Attorney Jamie Coleman works with these types of cases. She says when an heir forces a sale, families then have to buy back their land, and if they can’t pay—they lose it. That’s because each heir has equal rights to the land.
“Try explaining that to them… This is property that you’ve inherited over your lifetime, over your family’s lifetime, that your great grandfather probably got from after slavery,” Coleman says. She’s backing Ausley’s proposal, because, she says, it forces a judge to give families the right of first refusal.
“Procedurally, you didn’t have a road map and although judges could ask if other parties wanted to buy them out there’s nothing that was codified in the statute that gave them that type of discretion,” Coleman says.
Back in December, when the bill was being introduced, North Florida Legal Services’ Leslie Powell-Boudreaux said families can already buy out a relative. She worried the time limit set by the bill is too short.
“A lot of times, similar to any family law case, time can resolve some of the wounds that may come out of the grieving process of the loss of a relative. And so over time there’s an opportunity for those family members to put their heads together, figure out what the solution is and resolve that. And a stricter time process may limit the ability of a family to do that,” Powell-Boudreaux says.
After reseraching the bill, she now says, "Based on our continued research into the impact of similar statutes and other jurisdictions, the court would still have discretion as to timeframes."
"Our role is to make sure that people we serve understand how the law affects them. And this judicial discretion would still allow families to work toward a resolution," says Powell-Boudreaux."
Ben Orzeske is Chief Council at the Uniform Law Commission. It’s the group that first drafted the act. Orzeske says the bill doesn’t limit a judge’s discretion to extend a timeline if needed.
“I don’t think there’s anything in the bill that would prevent a judge from doing that even after the law passes if they chose to—we don’t take the discretion away from the court,” Orzeske says.
Ausley’s bill passed its second committee meeting. The Senate version is heading to its third committee stop.
Update: Story has been updated to include a statement from North Florida Legal Services.
