[Tooman]

Here's the situation: My uncle owns 20 acres of property in northern MI that a group of us use for hunting. This group is all family and includes nephews, cousins, etc...

The title of the property is solely in my uncles name. The mortgage of the property is paid in full. He is concerned that if he were to pass away, his children would quickly sell the property and therefore take it away from the people that use and enjoy the property. (his children don't use/visit the property at all)

He asked me to look into how he can divide ownership of the property into 4 equal parts. (himself and his 3 nephews) Is there a way for this to happen and for the 4 partners to individually pass down their share to their children after death? How does all this work when it comes to tax time? What happens if one of the four refuses down the road to pay property taxes?

In essence, we would like to keep the property in the family for hunting/recreation. My uncle doesn't want the property to be sold for financial gain by his children.

Thanks in advance,

Brian

[rockinmommy]

He can designate in his will exactly what he wants to happen to it. Or he can sell or give the 3 of you shares of it now. An estate planning attorney and/or accountant can advise the best option if gift tax, etc is a concern.

In the future if one partner doesn't pay their share of taxes or other expenses then it's just up to the other partners whether to pay that share and not worry about it, pay that share and sue the person for it, or I guess not pay, let the taxes get behind and eventually face a tax sale or something. You could always offer to buy people out if their interest in using the property dissipates.

I don't know of any way to remove someone from partial ownership who doesn't want to be removed. It would require a buy-out.

Did that answer your questions?

There's a property similar to this in my husband's family, and I can tell you from personal experience that the more issues addressed in writing, the better. The problem with this kind of deal is that you can't make someone (future generations, etc) be interested in something. Just because it's really important to Uncle and current Nephews, unfortunately doesn't mean that his wishes will be adhered to down the road. If the expectation is pounded into everyone's head that this is the "Jones Family Hunting Ground" PERIOD - hopefully that's all it's ever seen as. The problem usually arises when some son or daughter or cousin or whoever comes along at some point in the lineage, thinks, "gee, nobody ever uses the Hunting Ground anymore - we must be sitting on a gold mine if we could just sell it." Then sides get taken, good intentions of Uncle go out the window, and the fight insues.

But right now... it's HIS... he can do whatever he wants with it.