Getting the Homeplace In Order: Heirs’ Property Toolkit, Kentucky

LiKEN Knowledge is proud to publish Getting the Homeplace In Order: Heirs’ Property Toolkit, Kentucky!

Read and Download the Toolkit!

This 30-page toolkit is a helpful, understandable, and relevant resource for anybody who owns—or will own—shared family land, specifically heirs’ property, in any of the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s 120 counties. Heirs' property, simply put, this is land that is owned by multiple people who have inherited it from a deceased relative. The most important quality of heirs’ property is that the entire property is shared by anybody who owns an undivided interest in said property. Importantly, this means that owners of heirs’ property do not own some portion of specific acreage on a property. Instead, they own an interest in the entire property, similar to how somebody might own an interest in a corporation. 

Defining Heirs’ Property and Navigating Its Challenges

Property commonly becomes heirs’ property when the owner dies without a will (intestate) or with a will that gives their property to all of their children without dividing the property. Those who inherit the property do so as heirs, each owning an undivided interest in the property. Because ownership is divided among several people, heirs’ property has a fractured title. And because the identities of the owners are oftentimes unclear in public records, heirs’ property is also referred to as having “clouded title.” 

While many people deeply value their shared family land, owning it with a fractured and clouded title can hinder families’ ability to use and develop it. Even the heirs who call the property home and invest time and resources into it may struggle to receive the full benefits of property ownership. For example, profits produced from heirs’ property must be distributed among the heirs according to their undivided interest in the property, regardless of who lives on the property or performed the labor. Moreover, owning property with a fractured and clouded title can open the family up to losing the property to hostile lawsuits, like tax foreclosure and partition action. 

Putting the Toolkit into Practice

LiKEN Knowledge produced “Getting the Homeplace In Order: Heirs’ Property Toolkit, Kentucky” with the two-fold goal of providing a general audience with introductory information about heirs’ property and equipping heirs’ property owners with resources and strategies for navigating heirs’ property-related issues. The content was written to feel relevant to Kentucky residents and their out-of-state kin, with topics chosen to address their concerns and needs while reflecting the cultural, economic, legal, and environmental dynamics of the Commonwealth. Although heirs' property owners are the primary audience, this Toolkit may also be relevant for non-heirs’ property owners, legal practitioners, financial institutions, non-profit organizations, and government workers in Kentucky — a commonwealth that has a minimum of 582,477 acres of heirs’ property. 

The Toolkit is composed of four chapters: Understanding Heirs’ Property, Heirs’ Property Prevention, Heirs’ Property Challenges and Risks, and Tools for Resolving Heirs’ Property. Within these four chapters are twenty-two sections. While these sections can be read together as one complete document, they were designed to also be distributed as stand-alone fact sheets. These pages can also be paired with each other in different combinations to meet the specific needs of individual land owners. Finally, the Toolkit ends with an appendix that includes a list of all resources referenced throughout the sections and the complete glossary with all the terms defined throughout.

Getting the Homeplace In Order: Heirs’ Property Toolkit, KY was produced by Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN Knowledge) with funding from the Center for Heirs’ Property and the American Forest Foundation.