Sell Fire Damaged HouseGreenville

Sell a Fire Damaged House in Greenville

Sell a Fire Damaged House in Greenville

We buy fire-damaged property across Greenville and the Upstate exactly as it stands — smoke damage, boarded, gutted or already cleared. This page explains what yours is worth, and what South Carolina does to protect families whose house is owned by more people than anyone has ever counted.

What Is Your Property Worth?Four quick taps, about a minute
  1. Address
  2. Damage
  3. The Deed
  4. Contact

Four quick taps. No obligation, no repairs and no fee to you.

We never sell or share your details. Privacy policy.

The Act
Effective 1 January 2017Title 15, Chapter 61, Article 3
Named For
Clementa C. PinckneySouth Carolina
Written to Stop
Predatory partition salesIts stated purpose
Appraisal
Assuming sole ownershipOf the fee simple estate

How a House Ends Up With Eight Owners

Somebody dies without a will. Under intestate succession the property passes to their heirs as tenants in common, and no deed is ever recorded to say so. Then one of those heirs dies, and their share divides again.

Three generations of that produces a house owned by a dozen people, several of whom have never seen it, some of whom do not know they own it, and none of whom can sell it alone. In South Carolina this is called heirs' property and it is enormously common.

What Does a Fire Do to That?

It turns a dormant problem into an emergency. An insurance claim needs somebody with an insurable interest and the authority to make it. A repair needs somebody who can sign a contract. Securing the building needs somebody willing to spend money on an asset they own a fraction of. On heirs' property all three stall at once, and the building deteriorates while the family works out who can do what.

The full position is on our page covering heirs property and the Pinckney Act.

And Why That Attracts the Wrong Kind of Buyer

Here is the pattern South Carolina legislated against, and it is worth understanding before anybody approaches you.

A tenant in common can sell their own fractional share without anybody else's agreement. So a buyer approaches one cousin, buys their one-twelfth cheaply, and becomes a cotenant. As a cotenant they can then petition the court for partition, and historically that meant the whole property going to a courthouse auction where it sold for a fraction of its worth.

Is That Legal?

Buying a fractional interest is lawful, and what South Carolina changed is what happens next. The Clementa C. Pinckney Uniform Partition of Heirs' Property Act took effect on 1 January 2017 and was adopted specifically to stop predatory partition sales. It did not ban the purchase of a share. It rebuilt the process that follows so that the family gets a right to buy the share back, a proper valuation, and a real sale rather than an auction.

What the Act Requires

A preliminary determination. When a partition action is filed the court must first decide whether the property qualifies as heirs' property, under section 15-61-330.

A real appraisal. Section 15-61-360 requires the court to order one from a disinterested real estate appraiser licensed in this state, determining fair market value assuming sole ownership of the fee simple estate.

A buyout right. Under section 15-61-370 the remaining cotenants get the chance to buy out the interest of whoever asked for the sale.

An open-market sale. Section 15-61-400 provides that a court-ordered sale must be an open-market sale unless sealed bids or an auction would be more economically advantageous and in the best interest of the cotenants as a group, with a licensed broker listing at no less than the appraised value.

What a Fire-Damaged Greenville Property Is Actually Worth

The Terms That Move the Number Here

Who is actually on the deed. The first question, ahead of the damage.

Whether anyone has died without a will. Because that is how the fractions start.

Whether anyone has been approached about their share. And what they were offered.

Whether the property was insured at all. Heirs' property frequently is not, properly.

What the frame will still do. The ordinary question, once the rest is answered.

Anyone quoting without asking who owns it has priced a house they may not be able to buy.

What We Will Not Do, Stated Plainly

We will not buy a fractional interest from a single cotenant. Not one share, not two, not a majority of shares from some of the owners while others are not part of the conversation.

We buy whole properties from everybody who owns them, or we do not buy. That is the only version of this business that is not the thing the Pinckney Act was written about, and we would rather say it on the homepage than be asked.

Does That Lose You Deals?

Yes, and it is not a close question. Buying one share cheaply from somebody who needs money after a fire and then forcing the outcome is a way to make money, and it is the specific conduct a state legislature felt strongly enough about to name an act after a murdered senator to stop. If a family cannot reach agreement, the right answer is a lawyer and possibly the process the Act sets out, not us.

The Insurance Problem Underneath

Worth naming because it decides so many of these files. Property nobody clearly owns is property nobody insures properly, and a claim made by one heir on a house owned by twelve is a claim with a problem in it.

Many heirs' property fires end with no meaningful payout at all, not because the claim was refused unfairly but because the coverage was never correctly arranged. That changes what the property is worth and what the family's realistic options are.

How the Timeline Runs

An open claim does not prevent a sale. What stops a Greenville sale is an ownership picture nobody has established, and that is fixable with a lawyer and some patience.

If you are weighing several offers, how to tell local cash buyers apart covers the checks that separate them.

Questions Owners Ask

How Do I Find out Who Owns It?

The Register of Deeds holds what was recorded and the probate court holds what was administered. A South Carolina lawyer can assemble the picture, and it is the first useful step.

Somebody Offered to Buy My Share.

Take that to a lawyer before answering. Selling a fractional interest brings a stranger into your family's ownership and it is very hard to undo.

Can I Sell With an Open Claim?

Yes, where the ownership position allows a sale at all. Who keeps the proceeds is a contract term.

Nobody Will Pay to Secure It.

Common, and understandable when everyone owns a fraction. It is also the decision that costs the family most, because the building deteriorates while the question is open.

Sources

Find out What Your Property Is Actually Worth

Send the address and a few taps. You get a written figure and the arithmetic behind it, and if several people own the property we will tell you what that means before anything else.

Get a Number on the PropertyStep 1 of 2 — where is the property?
  1. Address
  2. Damage
  3. The Deed
  4. Contact

Four quick taps. No obligation, no repairs and no fee to you.

We never sell or share your details. Privacy policy.

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