Sell a Fire Damaged House in Travelers Rest, Marietta, Slater or the Northern Greenville County Mountains

Where the House Is Not the Point

On a holding of many acres that has been in a family since before anybody living can remember, a burned dwelling is a problem rather than the problem. The land is the asset and it is unaffected by the fire.

That changes what a family should be deciding. The question is not what the damaged house is worth but what the family wants the land to do, and whether anybody intends to live on it. The framework is on our page covering heirs property and the Pinckney Act.

Why Does Long Family Tenure Create the Problem?

Because each generation that passes without a will and without a recorded transfer multiplies the number of owners. A parcel held since the 1930s and passed intestate three times can be owned by dozens of people, most of whom have never been asked about it. Nothing went wrong; nobody made a mistake. It is simply what intestate succession does to land over time, and it is why the state legislated rather than treating it as a family failing.

Acreage Makes the Better Outcomes Available

Section 15-61-380 provides for partition in kind, dividing the property into physically distinct and separately titled parcels, and for partition by allotment, granting all or part of it to one or more cotenants with compensation to the rest. Section 15-61-390 requires the court to consider manifest prejudice or injury to the cotenants as a group before ordering a sale instead.

On a large rural parcel those are practical rather than theoretical, which is the most hopeful thing on this site for a family in this position.

Could Some of Us Keep It and Buy out the Others?

That is close to what partition by allotment describes, and it is also something families do by agreement without going near a court. Either route needs a value everybody accepts, which is why section 15-61-360 requires an appraisal by a disinterested appraiser licensed in this state determining fair market value assuming sole ownership of the fee simple estate. A South Carolina lawyer is the person to lay out both routes, and the conversation is worth having before a fire forces it.

We publish no ownership determinations, division opinions or land values for individual northern county properties. A South Carolina lawyer, a licensed appraiser and the county records answer those.

The Sign on the Property

Worth knowing for families whose members have scattered. Where a plaintiff in a partition action seeks notice by publication and the court determines the property may be heirs' property, the plaintiff must post and maintain a sign on the property not later than ten days after that determination.

So if something appears on family land, read it and tell everybody. It exists precisely because published notices do not reach people who moved away.

Distance Widens the Offers

Away from the city, contractors price travel and buyers price uncertainty about access, water and septic. That spreads the offers on the same property considerably, because those who have visited price accurately and those who have not guess.

Getting somebody to the property matters more here than anywhere else in this county.

The Northern County in Context

Where parcels are smaller and division is rarely practical, see our page about the West End and Nicholtown. Where the same issue is least expected, see our page for North Main and Augusta Road.

The Sections That Matter Most on Acreage

Section 15-61-380 provides for partition in kind and by allotment, and section 15-61-390 requires a manifest prejudice finding before a sale. Section 15-61-360(D) requires an appraisal assuming sole ownership of the fee simple estate.

Section 15-61-340 requires a sign posted on the property within 10 days where notice is by publication. All sit in Article 3 of Chapter 61 of Title 15, effective 1 January 2017.

Northern County Questions

Nobody Knows How Many of Us Own It.

Normal, and answerable. The Register of Deeds and the probate court hold the pieces and a lawyer assembles them.

A Sign Appeared on the Land.

Read it, photograph it and tell the family. Then speak to a South Carolina lawyer promptly.

Will You Buy in Travelers Rest or Marietta?

Yes, from all the owners together, and we will tell you plainly where keeping the land beats selling it.

Sell a Fire Damaged House in The Northern County