En esta noticia
A parent’s death can spark a dispute among children when it’s time to decide what to do with the family home. One of the most common conflicts arises when several siblings inherit a property, but one of them keeps living there and refuses to sell it, while the others want to split the proceeds from the sale.
In Florida, the Chapter 64 of the state statutes provides a court process to resolve this type of dispute between co-owners. The law allows one or more heirs to ask for the property to be partitioned and, when it cannot be physically divided without harming its owners, a judge can order it sold.
However, the brother who lives in the house may also have options to keep it. Under certain conditions, the law allows the possibility of buying out the other family members’ shares and keeping the property.
What rights brothers have to the family home after their parents’ death
When a person dies and leaves a property to their children, each heir’s rights depend on how the home was legally transferred and the share each one is entitled to. If the siblings end up as co-owners, none automatically gains exclusive rights to the home simply by living there, since all of them have an interest in the property and can exercise the rights the law gives them.
In Florida, Chapter 64 of the state statutes, which covers partition of property, addresses disputes between co-owners who cannot agree on what should happen to a property. Section 64.031 says one or more owners can file a lawsuit against the others to request partition of the property. That means the brother living in the house does not, for that reason alone, have veto power over the other owners’ decisions.
When brothers can force a sale of the house through the courts
When the heirs cannot reach an agreement, one or more co-owners can turn to a partition action, a legal proceeding aimed at resolving the division of the property. But that does not mean the home must be sold automatically, because the court must first evaluate whether it can be physically divided without harming the owners’ rights.
Section 64.071 of Chapter 64 says that if the property cannot be divided without harming the co-owners, the court can order it sold at a public auction and distribute the proceeds among the owners according to each one’s share. So if one brother objects to selling the house, the others can ask the court to step in and the judge can order the sale when the legal requirements are met.
What the brother living in the house can do to avoid the sale
The law also provides an alternative for family members who want to keep the property: buying the shares of those who asked for it to be sold. Section 64.207 of Chapter 64 says this. When this process applies, the court first determines the home’s market value and then notifies the co-owners who did not request the sale that they can buy the shares of those who did. They have 45 days from the court notice to say whether they want to do so.
This protection applies to properties that meet the requirements of the so-called Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, set out in Sections 64.201 through 64.214. For it to apply, among other conditions, the property must be co-owned, at least one owner must have inherited it from a family member, and one of the kinship or ownership percentages set by law must be met.
In addition, Section 64.209 says that when considering a possible physical partition, factors such as the following must be taken into account:
The property’s value if it is divided versus what it would be worth if sold whole.
- How long the family has owned or occupied the home.
- The heirs’ emotional attachment to the house.
- How the family member living there uses the property.
- Each co-owner’s contributions to taxes, insurance and maintenance.
In this way, the brother who wants to stay in the home may have an option to keep it, but he does not automatically get that right just because he lives there. If the buyout does not happen and the court decides the property should be sold, it can order the sale and the proceeds to be divided according to the heirs’ shares.