New Report Shows How ‘Heirship Affidavits’ Can Protect Family Property and Generational Wealth
Many Black families in the South, and low-income families across the country, face significant barriers to retain ownership of “heirs property”— property that passes from one generation to the next without a completed probate proceeding. Owners of heirs property are shut out of government-funded property tax relief, disaster recovery assistance, and home repair funding, or struggle to secure utility service. A little known tool called an “heirship affidavit” can help resolve these challenges.
A new report released by the National Consumer Law Center in partnership with the Initiative for Land, Housing, and Property Rights, Clearing a Path: How Heirship Affidavits Help Families Document Inherited Property, analyzes data from surveys, interviews, and focus groups to demonstrate the benefits of heirship affidavits, the factors that facilitate their use, and the barriers to their adoption.
“Heirship affidavits have the potential to alleviate some of the most significant risks of loss faced
by heirs property owners–people who have inherited the family home outside the formal legal process” said Sarah Bolling Mancini, managing director of advocacy at the National Consumer Law Center and co-author of the report. “Heirs are far more likely to be able to protect and preserve their homes and land when government programs accept heirship affidavits as flexible proof of ownership and the heirs have the same access to government programs as any other homeowner.”
It can be complicated to sell or refinance heirs property without legal documentation of the heirs’ existing ownership right, severely limiting families’ opportunities for wealth preservation and long-term housing stability. Heirship affidavits are a relatively straightforward and inexpensive way to document those existing ownership interests and the family relationships that gave rise to them.
Research suggests many attorneys and housing advocates are unfamiliar with heirship affidavits or assume they are unavailable in their jurisdiction. Approximately one-quarter of attorneys surveyed were uncertain whether and how heirship affidavits could be used to help their clients.
“The information we gained from practitioners shows how useful heirship affidavits can be when attorneys are aware of how they can be used,” said Jill T. Apter, policy associate at the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights at Boston College Law School and co-author of the report. “Heirship affidavits are an essential tool that should be more widely adopted to preserve and protect the owners of inherited homes and land.”
Housing advocates can expand awareness of heirship affidavits through state-specific outreach campaigns and by creating opportunities for practitioners to share experiences. Local, state, and federal governments should clarify that heirship affidavits are suitable for property tax relief and home repair programs.
Clearer and more consistent policies will reduce unnecessary barriers to accessing property tax relief, homestead exemptions, home repair and disaster recovery assistance, and other land- related and homeownership benefits that help keep families in their homes and allow families to pass down their family home, generation to generation.
