JEFFERSON CITY — Without a valid will, the death of a farm owner could leave the farmer’s family in danger of having to sell its land.
The proposed “Save the Family Farm Act,” would create a legal framework to help keep property in the family.
The bill, proposed by Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, would require that if one family member wants to sell his or her share of an inheritance, a court must give the other relatives 45 days to decide if they would like to buy out that share.
In the Senate Agriculture, Food Production and Outdoor Resources Committee meeting Monday afternoon, MU law professor Wilson Freyermuth explained that family farmers can run into issues when the property owner dies because not all farms can be physically divided fairly — for example, if there’s one house on the property and multiple people with an interest in it.
Freyermuth used the hypothetical example of a landowner in Missouri with a spouse and three children. If the landowner dies without making a valid will, half of the land would be passed to the spouse and the second half distributed evenly between the children. If one of the children decided to sell his or her share but the land couldn’t be physically divided, a court could order that the whole property be sold and the profits distributed to all of the heirs according to their percentage of ownership.
One heir could also sell his or her share to a third party, like a real estate investor or a predatory lender, who could then petition the court to order the sale of the property.
The proposed law would give the other family members a chance to buy the other relative’s share before a third party does.
“That property will typically have significant heritage or sentimental value to the family as well as potentially significant monetary value that may tie up a significant portion of the family’s wealth,” Freyermuth said. “Unfortunately, under the existing current laws and rules that govern partition, co-owners of heir’s property are vulnerable to losing that property and potentially a significant portion of the wealth that’s represented by it.”
The language the bill is based on was created in 2010 by the Uniform Law Commission, a law association that advocates for uniformity in state laws. It has already been passed in 11 states, and efforts have been made in eight other states to pass the law, Freyermuth said. The legislation is referenced twice in the national farm bill signed into law in December.
Hough said the law wouldn’t have any impact on landowners who have already been through the legal process of creating a will.
“This legislation deals with families who perhaps do not have the means or the forethought to go through that process, and outlines very clearly what could be a frustrating situation for a family,” Hough said.
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