Heirs Property Program
What is “heirs property?”
Heirs property is land passed down through a family, often over multiple generations and to numerous descendants, without the use of wills or determination by probate courts. Heirs of the original owner can possess and use the property with equal claim regardless of the size of their factional title interest in the land. But without proper documentation or clear title, owners can’t sell the property, borrow against it or qualify for federal farm loans or disaster relief. These complications can strain family relationships and make farmland vulnerable to partition and sale — often at below-market prices — and removed from farm and forest use. Because Black landowners disproportionately hold it, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has called heirs property the leading cause of Black involuntary land loss. In North Carolina, the value of land owned as heirs property is estimated at nearly $1.9 billion (Conservation Trust for North Carolina, 2023). Although no one is immune to the vulnerability of losing their land to a forced partition action, this issue disproportionately impacts Black, Indigenous, and People of Color throughout North Carolina. This platform will help navigate and continue to seek innovative solutions to address these issues at the community level in North Carolina.
Estimated Total Acres of Heirs Property
Who are we?
North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University has joined with NC State University to lead a statewide effort to increase knowledge about heirs property. This platform will provide educational training, outreach, materials and resources, regarding heirs property issues, to help property owners protect and preserve land in North Carolina that their families have held for generations.
The project is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture - Risk Management Agency (USDA-RMA) through Alcorn University and Southern Rural Development Center.
Project Team
- Biswanath Dari, Ph.D., assistant professor and natural resource specialist at Cooperative Extension at N.C. A&T (project lead)
- Kurt W. Smith, Ph.D., assistant professor and Cooperative Extension specialist – forestry at NC State Extension;
- Noah Ranells, Ph.D., NC Farm Link Director, Eastern Region, NC State Extension;
- Robert Andrew Branan, J.D., associate professor of resource economics, NC State Extension; Agricultural and Environmental Law Specialist resource economics.
Meet the Project Partners
Heirs property owners are especially vulnerable to losing their land because they are subject to partition actions to physically divide or sell the land (Francine Miller, 2022; Center for Agriculture and Food Systems). This project marks the first time that N.C. A&T and NC State University — North Carolina’s two land-grant universities — have collaborated on a project to educate the public about heirs property.
Biswanath Dari, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor and Agriculture and Natural Resource Specialist with Cooperative Extension at N.C. A&T.
"Heirs property is a very critical issue especially in North Carolina. There are many people that are not aware they have heirs' property issues. They do not know there are steps they can take and legal pathways that can help them to resolve the long-term history of heirs issues. We build this website to bring those useful resources as a one-stop-hub that are available and people can use to secure their property from heirs issues in North Carolina.”
Kurt Smith, Ph.D., Extension specialist in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources at NC State University, noted that fragmentation of existing farm and forest parcels has become a serious threat to North Carolina’s $103 billion agricultural economy.
"North Carolina is projected to lose 1.1 million acres through development by the year 2040, second in the nation for lost agricultural land,“ Smith said. “We should be doing all we can to help property owners keep their land. Heirs property represents the most vulnerable form of land ownership out there. We are grateful that A&T is helping lead the way in working on this challenging issue."
Noah Ranells, Ph.D., works with the NC FarmLink program of NC State Cooperative Extension and services NC State and N.C. A&T agents and staff at all NC Cooperative Extension County Centers. The NC FarmLink website has information and resources on farmland ownership, succession, and tenure, and offers clients a no cost farmland matching database to connect farm seekers and landowners.
"While heirs property poses significant challenges to maintaining cultural and family heritage in the form of land, it also represents 'frozen capital' which can often prevent heirs from using the property to leverage starting and growing other business and personal projects, including purchasing additional farmland,” he said.
What We Provide
Five full-day, in-person summits and hands-on workshops will cover the origin and history of heirs property, inform participants about estate planning and legal strategies to secure their land, and connect them with resources and other technical assistance including some potential opportunities to listen from a group of a panel who are dealing with heir’s issues or dealt with earlier. Using an heirs property curriculum developed by Alcorn State University and SRDC in Mississippi, and utilizing the resources obtained through Train-the-trainer training by HPP project partners we are committed to delivering these educational training and materials for North Carolinians.
Our team members will provide in-person, hands-on and practical workshops and trainings in different locations of North Carolina to increase our ‘Understanding Heirs' Property at the Community Level in North Carolina’. The tentative schedule for those Summits and Workshops are ops provided below which may subject to change as per the situation:
Summit Schedule
Agenda for Each Summit
For more information
Please contact any of the following:
- Biswanath Dari, bdari@ncat.edu.
- Noah Ranells, nnranell@ncsu.edu
- Kurt Smith, kwsmith@ncsu.edu
- Andrew Branan, rabrana2@ncsu.edu
Heirs Property Resources
Short videos highlighting some of the issues around heirs property in NC will be available here. Check back at this site in Feb., 2024.
