New Law Protects Homeowners Against Partition Sales

Probate lawyers come to the aid of the personal representatives of deceased family members’ estates when they must face their worst enemy, estate research firms that are in the business of convincing people to try to claim an inheritance from the estate of a distant relative they have never met.  To give just one egregious example, a woman who was administering her late father’s estate received a letter from a lawyer representing three women in Austria who claimed to be her older half-sisters, when the personal representative had always believed that she was an only child.  This is not the only situation where unscrupulous businesses prey on the family members of recently deceased people.  The most common form of this phenomenon in New York City is deed theft, where corporate entities, usually limited liability companies (LLCs) buy a share of a real estate property from a cash-strapped person who has inherited the property jointly with his or her siblings or cousins; then the LLCs use their vast resources to bully the other heirs into selling their shares, thus obliterating the family’s generational wealth and causing financial hardship for the heirs.  A new law in New York has criminalized deed theft and otherwise increased protections for heirs to real estate properties.  If someone richer than you is trying to force you to sell a real estate property that you have inherited, contact a Bronx real estate attorney.

Amendment to the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act Makes Deed Theft a Crime

For years, deed theft has been rampant in New York City.  In the ten-year period ending in 2023, the New York sheriff’s Office received 3,500 complaints about deed theft.  The most vulnerable targets are properties in low income neighborhoods that are undergoing gentrification, and a disproportionate number of homeowners targeted by deed theft in New York City are Black.

The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act of 2019 provided protections against deed theft, and it received a set of amendments in the summer of 2024.  Under the current version of the law, an heir who has inherited a real estate property jointly with relatives may not sell his or her share to a corporate entity without first giving the other heirs the right to buy it at the same price that the corporate LLC is offering.  Of course, most heirs in this situation cannot afford to pay the prices that LLCs offer for real estate properties in gentrifying neighborhoods.  Therefore, Sustainable Neighborhoods, a subsidiary of the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, offers affordable loans to heirs who wish to keep their inherited property in the family instead of selling it to an LLC, enabling them to match the LLC’s offer.  Furthermore, the new amendments to the law categorize deed theft as a crime.

Schedule a Confidential Consultation With a Bronx Real Estate Attorney

A real estate lawyer can help you defend yourself and your family against deed theft.  Contact Cavallo & Cavallo in the Bronx, New York to set up a consultation.

Source:

brownstoner.com/real-estate-market/deed-theft-partition-sales-homeowner-protections-new-york-state-law-july-2024/