Successions in Acadiana
You inherited a house in Louisiana.
A house arrives with paperwork attached, and in Louisiana that paperwork has its own vocabulary. Getting the order of operations right is most of the work, and it is the part almost nobody explains.
The order of operations
Nothing can be sold until this is done
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Find out whether there is a will
A succession with a valid testament is testate; without one it is intestate and the Civil Code decides who inherits. Both are successions. The will does not have to be found to start, but it changes who ends up on the judgment.
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Work out who the heirs actually are
Including the ones nobody has spoken to in fifteen years. Louisiana distinguishes community property from separate property, and a surviving spouse's share and a child's share are different things. A half sibling from an earlier marriage is an heir. So is a child of a sibling who died first.
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Open the succession in the right parish
Generally the parish where the person was domiciled at death. A house in Lafayette owned by somebody who lived in Opelousas is a St. Landry Parish filing. This trips people up constantly, and filing in the wrong parish costs weeks.
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Get the judgment of possession signed
This is the document that moves ownership to the heirs and the one a title examiner will ask for. Once it is recorded in the conveyance records of the parish where the property sits, the heirs can sell.
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Then decide what to do with the house
Keep it, rent it, list it, or sell it as-is. That decision is genuinely easier once the legal question is closed, and taking it earlier tends to produce agreements that fall apart.
The other half of the problem
The house has usually been sitting
Inherited houses in this part of Louisiana tend to arrive in a specific condition. Somebody elderly lived there a long time and deferred maintenance for the last decade of it. Then it sat empty through at least one summer while the succession worked its way through.
What that produces, in roughly this order: a roof at or past the end of its insurable life, an air conditioner that has not run in months, humidity damage along the exterior walls, a water heater nobody has drained since the Clinton administration, and a kitchen no financed buyer will get past.
That condition is not a reason the house is worth nothing. It is the reason the choice between listing and selling as-is is a real choice here rather than a formality. A house that needs thirty thousand dollars of work to appraise is a different decision for four heirs splitting the proceeds than it is for one owner with a line of credit.
What the heirs are usually deciding between
- One heir buys the others out and keeps it.
- Cleanest when somebody actually wants the house, and it needs a value everybody accepts.
- Fix it and list it.
- Highest gross number, and every heir has to fund their share of the repairs and wait.
- List it as-is on the open market.
- Reaches retail buyers who are willing to take on work, and takes longer while the pool of buyers who can finance it is smaller.
- Sell it as-is directly.
- One closing date, no repairs, no showings, and a lower number. Frequently the right call when the heirs are scattered and nobody is nearby.
This is general information about how successions work in Louisiana. It is not legal advice, and no page can be, because the answer turns on the facts of your family. Talk to a Louisiana attorney about your specific succession. Chris is not one, and he will say so.
What Chris can do here
Three useful things, none of which is legal advice
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Tell you what it is worth, both ways
A comparative market analysis on the repaired house and an as-is number on it today. Heirs argue less when there are two real figures on the table instead of one guess.
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Price the repairs honestly
He has paid for enough roofs, slabs and air handlers in this parish to say what the work costs without a contractor in the room.
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Wait for the succession
A direct purchase can be lined up now and closed the week after the judgment of possession is recorded. Nothing is signed before you have the authority to sign it.
Succession questions
What heirs in Acadiana ask first
Is a succession the same thing as probate?
It is the Louisiana equivalent, and the difference is more than a name. Louisiana is a civil law state, so the process, the vocabulary and several of the rules are their own. You will see the word probate on national websites and in national forms. In a Louisiana courthouse it is a succession, and the document that ends it is a judgment of possession.
Can I sell the house before the succession is finished?
Usually not in the ordinary way. Until a judgment of possession puts the property in the heirs' names, or the court authorizes an administrator to sell it, there is nobody with clear authority to sign an act of sale. A title examiner will catch it. Some estates qualify for a small succession procedure that is faster and cheaper than a full succession, and a Louisiana attorney can tell you in one conversation whether yours does.
What is a usufruct, and why does it stop the sale?
Louisiana often splits ownership in two. The usufructuary has the right to use the property and take its fruits, such as rent. The naked owners hold the ownership itself. A surviving spouse commonly holds a usufruct over the deceased spouse's share while the children are naked owners. Neither side can sell the full ownership alone. Everybody has to sign, or the usufruct has to end or be released first.
My siblings and I all inherited it. What if one will not agree?
You own it in indivision, and a sale of the whole property needs all of you. If agreement is impossible, any co-owner can bring a partition action, and where a house cannot be divided physically the court orders it sold and the proceeds split. That is slower and more expensive than agreeing, which is why it is worth exhausting every version of agreement first, including one heir buying the others out.
What is forced heirship and does it apply to us?
Louisiana kept a limited form of forced heirship. It protects children who were under twenty-four at the parent's death, and children of any age who are permanently unable to care for themselves or their property because of mental incapacity or physical infirmity. If a forced heir exists, part of the estate is reserved to them regardless of what the will says. It does not apply to most adult children, but when it does apply it changes who has to sign.
Do we owe tax on a house we inherited?
Louisiana repealed its inheritance tax, and most estates are well under the federal estate tax threshold. The tax that usually matters is capital gains when you sell, and inherited property generally receives a stepped-up basis to its value at the date of death, which often leaves very little gain. Ask a CPA about your specific numbers before you assume either way.
No obligation, and no rush
Where the succession stands
Even a rough answer helps: whether it has been opened, which parish, and how many heirs are involved.
Check it yourself
Louisiana law, at the source
Every claim on this page can be checked against a public source. These are the ones it rests on.
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Louisiana law, in full
Successions, usufruct, indivision, partition and mineral servitudes are all in the Civil Code, published by the state.
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Verify a license
Louisiana licenses are public record. Search a license number before you sign anything with any agent, including this one.
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IRS
The federal rules on capital gains, the primary residence exclusion, depreciation recapture and like-kind exchanges.
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HUD fair housing
What the Fair Housing Act protects, and how to file a complaint if you believe you were treated differently in a housing transaction.
Related
Where to go next
The pages most people read after this one.
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Selling as-is in Opelousas
St. Landry Parish, heir property and long-held family land.
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Vacant land
Lots, acreage and heir property, and what holding it costs every year.
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Listing versus cash
The full arithmetic on one house, three ways, with the assumptions written down.
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Compare your options
Four paths for a house that has to move quickly, and what each costs in money and in weeks.
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Behind on the mortgage
Forbearance, loss mitigation and free counselling, before selling is on the list.
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For agents
If an agent is handling the succession property, they keep the client and the file.