Legal limbo: Why dying without a will can cost families their homes

(InvestigateTV) — When a homeowner dies without a will, a family home can end up stuck in legal limbo. Undoing that damage can take time, money and help.

Denise Crews is a client navigator with the Richmond Heirs Property Network, where she helps families deal with heirs’ property, also known as a tangled title. That happens when legal ownership of a home is unclear, often after a property owner dies without a will.

“I’m the mediator, I’m the hand holder…And I’m the bridge. I like to call myself the bridge between the client and the community and the attorneys that they work with,” Crews said.

For her, it’s more than just a job. Crews said she has several family members, as well as herself, who have gone through heirs’ property issues.

A home that had been in her family for generations was eventually sold.

“That was hard for me. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to get emotional….but that was hard for me – to see someone in less than two years…get rid of something that had been in the family for more than 50 years,” Crews said.

Crews said when title to a home is unclear, it can be harder for families to prove ownership, get loans, access some home repair help or qualify for some disaster assistance.

Emma Whitten is a heirs property attorney with Central Virginia Legal Aid Society. She said not only is it hard to identify what the problem is, but it’s also hard to have access to a real estate lawyer or a probate attorney or an elder law attorney to figure out how the problem started and how to undo it.

Whitten said this can happen anywhere, but it can be especially complicated in places where property has been passed down informally through generations without estate planning.

“People can pass away without a will all over the country. But in the deeper south where there is more land, and families of color have generationally, informally passed on their homes from, you know, next of kin, one after the other, without estate planning,” Whitten said.

The Local Initiatives Support Corporation, or LISC, is also working to help families understand heirs property and connect with resources. Jane Ferrara, executive director of LISC Virginia, said the organization is reaching people through client navigators, social media and neighborhood meetings to explain what heirs property means, how it can affect families and what help may be available.

LISC said its heirs property initiative aims by 2030 to unlock $1.8 billion in “dead equity” and increase wealth transfers within low- to moderate-income households by 5% annually.

For Crews, helping just one family makes the work worth it.

“There’s no feeling like it. It’s the biggest accomplishment. All of the headaches, the calls, it’s worth it,” Crews said.

Attorneys and advocates say the best time to address this is before there is a crisis. That means talking with family, getting important paperwork in order and seeking help from legal aid or a local heirs property assistance program if ownership of a home is unclear. The Heirs Property Practitioner Network has factsheets for every state on their website.