Central Appalachia has extremely high rates of heirs’ property (land that has passed either without a will to multiple descendants or with a will to children in undivided interests, who become “tenants in common” of the property). Such patterns of clouded title can dramatically affect economic well being. Families can become vulnerable to land loss. It decreases intergenerational transfer of wealth and creates barriers to credit, investment, and legal and government services. When whole communities have high levels of land insecurity, they are vulnerable to blight and have trouble seizing new economic opportunities. Tangled, insecure, and inequitable land ownership patterns create major barriers to economic diversification, innovation, and prosperity in the region. 

On the other hand, heirs’ property can also carry benefits. Shared property, no matter how tangled the title, can carry deep emotional and cultural meanings that connect extended families to the land and intergenerational heritage. We seek balanced solutions to these complex challenges, with particular concern for the most underserved and low income communities.

What is Heirs' Property?

Heirs property refers to real estate that is inherited by multiple heirs through intestate succession (no valid will). When the original owner passes away, their heirs inherit fractional interests in the property's title, making them co-tenants with one another. This kind of title is called a "clouded title." In contrast to a "clear title," where ownership is clearly defined, the owner on a clouded title is typically a deceased person. 

Heirs' property is one of the most precarious and untenable forms of land ownership in the United States. Ultimately, it creates an opportunity for unrelated and commercial entities to acquire and leverage an interest in the property into complete dispossession. While the clouded status of heirs' property titles make them vulnerable to dispossession, it also makes it vulnerable to abandonment. Heirs' property owners regulalry struggle to prove their ownership and thus, struggle to leverage the property to procure loans or a mortgage. The process for acquiring most federal, state, and county cost-sharing programs for land utilization is significantly more difficult for heirs' properties than non-heirs properties as well. Moreover, the clouded status of the title decreases the overall value of the land and restricts it from being used as commercially productive land. 

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Introducing the Appalachian Heirs' Property Center

Scholars and community organizers in the South and Appalachia have identified heirs' property as a major root cause of persistent poverty. The Appalachian Heirs' Property Center (AHPC) is LiKEN Knowledge's free technical assist program for heirs' property owners in Eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia. The AHPC is composed of community organizers, legal service providers, and natural resource professionals who work in tandem to assist heirs' property owners. The AHPC offers both free legal and land utilization/forest management technical assistance. Our forest management program is particually equipped to provide advice to landowners looking to adopt agroforestry practifces. 

The mission of the AHPC is to expand the potential for commons-based livelihoods by offering free title clearing, estate planning and education, and forest management services. Our model comes from the Center for Heirs’ Property Preservation (CHPP), a nonprofit founded in 2002 in South Carolina, that has been nationally preeminent in developing successful methods for community-based solutions to heirs' property problems.

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Title Clearing

If the heirs agree to initiate the process of title clearing, LiKEN will connect them (or the heirs’ representative) with title abstractors and legal service providers who can perform the research and legal actions demanded by the process. When all of the necessary requirements are met (chain of deed, mapping of fractional interests, consensus among heirs, etc.), the AHPC attorney(s) will transfer the fractional interests in the property into equivalent fractional interests in a trust/LLC and put ownership of the property under the ownership of the trust/LLC. This entire process will be carefully managed by AHPC community engagement coordinator(s) in a manner that builds and maintains trust between the heirs and the AHPC.

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Education & Wills Clinics

Education is a key component of the AHPC. LiKEN partnered with Kentucky State University and the University of Kentucky for "Navigating Kentucky's Heirs' Property," their train-the-trainer seminars on heirs' property for cooperative extension agents and county officials all over Kentucky. LiKEN also collaborated with Cooperative Extension Service offices in Eastern Kentucky to organize free Will-Writing Clinics and Heirs' Property Information Sessions.

Wills clinic participants are be able to sit down with a volunteer attorney and collaboratively write a simple will for free. These clinics aim to make estate planning more accessible to Eastern Kentucky residents, regardless of their financial situation, and prevent the creation and further fractionalization of heirs' property. All Wills Clinics & Heirs' Property Information Sessions were held at the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service office in each county. From March to November 2024, volunteer attorneys drafted 122 wills across 7 counties: Harlan, Martin, Leslie, Johnson, Breathitt, Perry, and Floyd.

Agroforestry & Ecological Restoration

Agroforestry is another key component of the AHPC. While LiKEN's community engagement coordinators work with families to clear their title, they will also assist them in drafting a socioecological site description and a ecoforestry management plan and procuring a USDA Farm Number. The ecoforestry management plan will focus on agroforestry practices and the development of non-timber products such as herbs (black cohosh, ginseng, goldenseal, etc.), maple syrup, and culinary mushrooms. The plan can also include ecological restoration and flood mitigation components to increase the carbon sequestration capacity, biodiversity, and climate resilience of the property. After the family has received a clear title, LiKEN will connect them with natural resource professionals from within the AHPC and federal/state agencies that can provide the money and technical assistance needed to implement the ecoforestry management plan. Importantly, the AHPC will not help landowners who primarily wish to utilize their land for timber harvesting. 

Research and Policy Advocacy

Concurrent with AHPC's title clearing, education, and agroforestry services, the AHPC is also conducting research to directly inform state policymakers and federal agencies. While heirs' property is a national problem, the details and effects of heirs' property is different from region to region and state to state. That is to say that the landscape of property ownership in Eastern Kentucky looks different than Georgia or South Carolina or any other place. If the state legislators draft policies that could affect heirs' property owners in Eastern Kentucky, we want to make sure that those legislators have in-depth knowledge about how heirs' property functions in Eastern Kentucky and what challenges heirs' property owners face in the region. LiKEN recognizes that there is a gap between legislators in Frankfort and the residents of Eastern Kentucky. We want to bridge that gap by learning directly from heirs' property owners and hearing what they think would be best for their communities. Nobody knows the mountains like those who live in the mountains. 

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So far, we have published one report on heirs' property, "Examining the Efficacy of the Uniform Partition of Heirs' Property Act in Georgia, Alabama, and Kentucky: A Proof of Concept Investigation." LiKEN also has another report that extensively references heirs' property, titled "Where Credit is Due Examining USDA Finance, the Farm Credit System, and Barriers to Local Wealth and Sustainability." Both reports can be downloaded on our Resource page.

We are currently working on another report, titled "Comparative Effects of Heirs’ Property Ownership on Local Understandings of Wealth and Prosperity between Central Appalachia and the Deep South." This report is based on a study of the experiences and perceptions of heirs' property owners, community leaders, and other interested community members in selected Appalachian counties in Eastern Kentucky. Its purpose is to gather stories and assessments of community wealth among heirs' property owners, with the understanding that this ethnographic data can form the basis of popular education and community support for a region strongly affected by heirs' property ownership. Interviews with community leaders that have knowledge and experience with heirs' property issues, allow us to better understand the impact of heirs’ property ownership on overall economic development in these counties.

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Getting Involved

If you own heirs' property in Eastern Kentucky and are interested in our services or would like to speak with us about your experiences with the property, please email Kevin Slovinsky at kslovinsky@likenknowledge.org or call (619) 964-0840.