# *Advice wanted* tricky legal situation on farm



## GenY_FarmGirl (Jun 30, 2016)

Hi, 
I JUST joined, so moderators, if this post isn't where it should be feel free to move it/let me know!

My husband and I have started helping out his uncle on the historic family farm. It's been in the family since 1834! We would love to eventually take it over, however the legal situation is... cloudy to say the least. 

Basically, the farm was left to my husband's grandfather and his two siblings. They are still legally the owners, even though all but one is dead. One sibling only wanted the antiques on the farm, that was her share. She took the majority of them, and is the only person still living. Of the two brothers, each had two children, so I suppose those shares are split now. Only one of those children, my husband's uncle, actually lives on and runs the farm. He has been the only one investing in and managing it for years. 

He recently offered to let my husband and I fix up a farmhouse on the property and live there, and get more involved with farming, which we want to do. However- how can we protect ourselves legally- we are putting our own money into a farmhouse that we don't own and have no rental contract on... What would be the best way to approach this and establish some documents to protect ourselves should SHTF? 

Has anyone else had experience with farms owned by multiple people, over generations?


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## ihuntgsps (Mar 10, 2008)

I would start by talking to the uncle about how to best protect the historic farm in the future (after his passing). 
It would be worth the money to invest in an attorney that could sort through all the documents and determine who actually has legal ownership and how it can be transferred.
Doing this before investing money in an old farmhouse would be critical to me. 
Approach it in a manner that you wish to protect and preserve the family legacy (which it sounds to me is important to you) and do all you can to motivate the uncle, and other family members with a legal stake in it, to "unmuddy the waters" so everyone knows what will happen with the property in the future.


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## DryHeat (Nov 11, 2010)

There are a couple of what to me would be key points that you don't address. First, just how much land is involved and is it in any sort of prime development location, meaning, is it obviously worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars upwards? If so, the various scattered direct heirs may be quite rightfully looking at the property as an investment that can most easily be dealt with by selling as one block when the resident uncle eventually passes, with the net money split four ways at that point. 

Second, has your uncle in any way stated or implied that he's thinking in terms of you and his nephew stepping into a direct ownership position for even the part of the property you'd be putting the time and money into? I'd think a sit-down with him to ask the key questions is your next order of business. Is it possible he could be thinking only in terms of this being a harmless way to give the two of you a test project to see what's involved in renovating an old structure, getting a garden established, working with livestock, and so on? He might be thinking "of course" you guys couldn't eventually buy *that* land, but this would be the way for you to see if you wanted to take on such a project under your own steam in the future. Or, he might be thinking that he'd move heaven and earth to help you settle into the property permanently IF he saw you had the work ethic and talents to do so once you worked there for a couple of years. Or, he might not be thinking much either way.

And, assuming this is a smallish farm that's not prime for expensive subdivision, are you on good terms with your cousins? Do they value the idea of the property staying in the family? And, do you actually need some time settling in to learn if that's in fact the life for you? I'd say you should have upfront and hopefully friendly discussions with everyone involved (uncle and cousins) with your concerns about investing time and money into the situation that could exceed it being a simple temporary trade off for what rent would cost. Perhaps there are legal structures like a farm trust that could address everybody's interests?


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## Ellendra (Jul 31, 2013)

Get everything in writing. If you know one of your relatives is petty (doesn't matter which one) then also get it witnessed and notarized.

If it's not on paper, the agreement doesn't exist.

When floating that with the uncle, say that you're just trying to prevent any misunderstandings down the road. If your family is anything like mine, there have been enough misunderstandings already to sell him on the idea.


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## FarmerKat (Jul 3, 2014)

I have seen things like this go both ways ... fairly well and really, really bad ... 

With that said, I would treat it as a rental where you are living in exchange for maintenance. I would get rental agreement drawn with your uncle specifying the details. For example, it may be reasonable for you to do the work but your uncle (the owner) supplies the materials. 

There are several generations of inheritors who may be waiting to get their share once your uncle passes away. You say that only one owner still lives and that the antiques were her share ... unless she was legally removed from the deed, she still has a claim to the property (and so do her heirs upon her death). 

I would not make any assumptions based on the value of the property. I have seen families fight over properties that are worth very little. 

If it were me, I would only invest into the property what I am willing to walk away from and never see it again.


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## Lisa in WA (Oct 11, 2004)

Off topic, but this reminds me of a situation going on near me. People have had lake cabins on land leased from the state years and years ago. Some as far back as 1910 and subsequent generations have taken over the family lease as leases were extremely low. Because for some reason the state was delinquent in adjusting the lease rates over the years to current market rates, even though the rents are meant to go to Idaho schools, which are the lowest funded of all the states. 
Someone finally sued and the state decided it would raise the leases to current market rates and now people are having to pay around 25k a year to keep "their" land and the houses built on it. In some cases these are worth quite a lot of money. If they can't pay it, the land goes to auction to the highest seller. 

A lot of money some people poured onto land that wasn't theirs and they are losing it in many cases. 

Bad news to invest real money into something that you don't own.


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## Murby (May 24, 2016)

GenY_FarmGirl said:


> Hi
> He recently offered to let my husband and I fix up a farmhouse on the property and live there, and get more involved with farming, which we want to do. However- how can we protect ourselves legally- we are putting our own money into a farmhouse that we don't own and have no rental contract on... What would be the best way to approach this and establish some documents to protect ourselves should SHTF?
> 
> Has anyone else had experience with farms owned by multiple people, over generations?


Don't do it.. NEVER EVER fix up a property you do not own.. So many things can happen its not even possible to enumerate them.

Get your own property and fix it up.. 

Let me say this again:
NEVER EVER FIX UP A PROPERTY YOU DO NOT OWN!!!!! You will eventually lose all your hard work and investment to another persons benefit.


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## Teej (Jan 14, 2012)

Murby said:


> Don't do it.. NEVER EVER fix up a property you do not own.. So many things can happen its not even possible to enumerate them.
> 
> Get your own property and fix it up..
> 
> ...


 I did this in exchange for rent back in the mid 80's to mid 90's. Small house with 2 acres where I could have a horse. Got the first 6 months rent free and paid $100.00 per month for the next 8 years I lived there. I felt like I got a lot more benefit out of that deal than the owners.


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## GenY_FarmGirl (Jun 30, 2016)

Thank you all for your advice...
yes I think we will be needing to have a sit down with him in the near future!


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