Q: What percentage of the land would the one child refusing to sign own now and upon death of the parent?
A land deed was filed years ago giving multiple children (4) the land and granting lifetime rights to the parent. The parent now desires to have all 4 children sign deed back to the parent in order to sell timber and divide the land. (Note: the land has not been divided)
If one refuses to sign the deed back to the parent, would the land belong 50% to the parent and 50% to the child or would the child only own 1/4 of the land? (the deed does not state any percentages of ownership)
A:
I answered this question on another site. But for the benefit of readers, the parent has a life estate and the 4 children have an undivided 25% remainder interest.
I am not sure why the 3 children would need to convey the property back to the parent to do the timber - as long as all the parties sign any agreement that part should be fine.
The problem is with the "recalcitrant" child. If they cannot be persuaded to agree to timbering the property then the only solution may be to partition the land and basically subdivide it into 2 parcels - a 25% share for the recalcitrant child and 75% for the parent and children. The parent and children can then sell the timber on the 75%.
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