Identifying, Preventing and Resolving Heirs Property Issues in West Virginia

Commodities

Practices

• Farm Business Management: business planning, farm succession, financial management, land access

Project Focus

The West Virginia University College of Law and West Virginia Cooperative Extension engage with the farm community in West Virginia on a variety of issues. A particularly difficult issued raised by producers is heirs property. Heirs property is property inherited by multiple owners and held as tenants in common. With tenants in common property, no one owner can farm or timber the property without the consent of all other owners. Particularly as the number of owners multiply or disagreements arise between the owners, farming the property becomes difficult or impossible. Using the farm as collateral for loans or receiving state or federal program benefits are also hindered. Heirs property has been characterized as "dead capital" (Deaton 2007). Land in heirs also amounts to tenuous land tenure, preventing investment in sustainable farm practices. West Virginia, as the only state lying completely within Appalachia, contains a large number of heirs property parcels. However, no one knows how much, where, or how tangled the title to the property remains. Nor does any data exist on the owners of heirs property and their feelings towards or desires with the land.

Farmers in West Virginia need to clear and consolidate title to their farms in order to unlock the dead capital. Unlocking the land allows more access to farmland, and more sustainable and productive use of the land. In addition producers need to know how to prevent heirs property from occurring. More education and training in the tools to prevent and resolve farms held as heirs property in West Virginia is needed.

Solution and Approach

This project builds on the general education on heirs property being conducted in the state by providing state-specific tools to prevent and resolve heirs property in the state. A project advisory committee consisting of a diverse group of farmers with deep networks in the farming community will help connect the service providers with owners of farmland in heirs in the state. The training will provide knowledge on the tools that farmers need to prevent heirs property from occurring in the future and resolve existing heirs property issues. Prevention consists of estate and business planning tools, with a focus on either preventing multiple owners of farmland or providing business or other agreements to govern agricultural production on the land. The more difficult task of resolving heirs property issues is addressed through training on building family trees and navigating record rooms and tax offices. 

To address another issue, the project trains attorneys on heirs property issues to provide ready access to competent professional assistance. Like many rural areas, West Virginia is a legal desert. Access to attorneys with knowledge on heirs property is particularly lacking.

120 farmers on 10,000 acres attend the workshops, resulting in increased awareness of heirs property.

25 farmers on 2,500 acres will consult with an attorney resulting in creation of estate planning documents that will prevent creation of heirs property. The result of this and other project impacts will be 2,500 more acres of farmland available for agriculture in the state by clearing title.

75 farmers on 7,500 acres will complete the heirs property survey, resulting in membership in the heirs property network.

These steps will make 2,500 more acres of farmland available for agriculture in the state by clearing title.