Inherited a House on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

You inherited a house on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

Somebody died, and now there is a house. That order matters, because almost everything written for people in your position skips straight to the house. If it has only been a few weeks, you do not have to decide anything yet. A house can sit through a season. What follows is the practical part, for whenever you are ready to read it: why the deed still has your mother's name on it, who has to sign, what Chancery Court has to do with any of this, and what quietly gets worse while a house sits empty on this coast. None of this is legal or tax advice about your family's situation. The title attorney, and for the tax question a CPA, are the people who answer that.

The deed still has your father's name on it. That is normal.

When somebody dies, the deed does not update itself. There is no office that quietly changes the name. The house passed to the heirs at the moment of death, under the will if there was one and under Mississippi's intestate rules if there was not, but the public record still shows the name of the person who died. Sometimes for decades. That is not a mistake anybody made, and it is not a problem you have to solve before you are allowed to talk to anyone. It is the ordinary starting point for nearly every inherited house on this coast. What it does mean is that the chain of title has a gap in it, and closing that gap is the real work of an heir sale.

Everyone with an interest generally has to sign

An heir is not the same thing as the person holding the keys, or the one who has been paying the insurance, or the one who lived with your mother at the end. If four children inherited, generally all four have to sign. So does a spouse of an heir in some cases, because Mississippi requires a spouse to join in conveying homestead property. So does the brother nobody has spoken to in fifteen years. So does the child of an heir who has already passed, because a share does not vanish when its owner dies, it moves down a generation. Finding everyone is usually the slow part of an heir sale. Start it early, rather than discovering a missing cousin the week of closing.

An affidavit of heirship, or a full probate

There are two common ways to close the gap in the record. An affidavit of heirship is a sworn statement, usually from two people who knew the family well and inherit nothing themselves, setting out who the deceased was married to, who the children are, and who survived. It is recorded in the land records. It is cheap, and it is fast. A probate runs through Chancery Court in the county where the property sits, takes months rather than days, and ends in a court order nobody can argue with. Which one your family needs is not your call and it is not ours. The title attorney decides what he is able to insure, and he decides it by reading the actual record.

The title attorney sorts out who signs

This is the part that takes weight off you. You do not have to learn Mississippi succession law, and you should not try to guess at it. Every closing here goes through a licensed title attorney. The attorney runs the title search, reads the will if there is one, identifies every person who holds an interest, tells you exactly whose signature is required and in what form, and holds the money until the title is clean. Heirs living out of state sign in front of a notary where they are. Nobody is asked to fly in. If the record cannot be cleared, he says so early, before the family has spent money or made plans around it.

An empty house does not wait for the family

Taxes run whether anyone is living there or not, and an unpaid year goes to the county tax sale in late August, which starts a two year redemption clock on a house nobody is watching. Insurance is the other one. Most homeowner policies change or lapse once a house is vacant, and on this coast an uninsured empty house between June and November is a real exposure. Then the small things add up: a slow leak nobody hears, a grass citation from the city, copper pulled out of a place that looks unoccupied. None of this is urgent in the first month. Most of it is real by the sixth. Knowing that is not a reason to rush, it is a reason to put a date on the calendar.

When brothers and sisters do not agree

One of you wants to keep it because it was home. One wants it sold by spring. One has been covering the insurance for two years and feels owed for it. This is the most common reason an inherited house sits empty, and underneath, it is usually not an argument about money. It helps to get the disagreement onto paper: what the house is worth in its current condition, what the repairs would cost, what taxes and insurance run each year, and what each share actually works out to. Some families buy each other out. Some rent it and split it. Some sell. If it stays deadlocked for years, any co-owner can ask a Chancery Court to force a partition sale, and that outcome rarely satisfies anyone, so it is worth exhausting the quiet options first.

Questions we get asked

Can we sell if the deed is still in my mother's name?

Yes, in the ordinary case. What is sold is the interest the heirs hold, and the deed at closing is signed by the heirs, not by the person who died. The gap in the record gets closed first, either with a recorded affidavit of heirship or through Chancery Court, and the title attorney tells you which one your situation needs. Bring him the death certificate, the will if there is one, and a written list of the children and grandchildren. That is usually enough to start.

One of my siblings will not sign. What happens then?

Nothing closes without them, and no one can sign in their place. Before you treat it as refusal, find out what they actually object to. It is often the price, the speed, or the feeling of being told rather than asked, and all three can be worked with. If it is a true deadlock, the legal path is a partition action in Chancery Court, which is slow, spends the family's money, and usually ends in a sale at a worse number than you could have agreed on between yourselves.

Do we have to go through probate?

Not always. Where the family history is simple, the heirs agree, and there are no unusual debts, a recorded affidavit of heirship is often enough for a title attorney to insure a sale. Probate becomes necessary when a will has to be admitted, when creditors or a complicated family record need a court's ruling, or when an heir is a minor or cannot be found. The decision belongs to the attorney who has to insure the title, so ask him before you hire anyone or pay a filing fee.

Will we owe tax on the sale?

Mississippi has no state inheritance tax and no state estate tax, and inherited property is generally valued for tax purposes as of the date of death rather than what your parent originally paid, which is why many families owe far less than they feared. We are not accountants, and this is not advice about your situation. Ask a CPA before you plan around either answer, particularly if the house has been rented out or if several years have passed since the death.

There is still a mortgage on it. Does that stop us?

No. A loan is paid off out of the sale like any other lien. Call the servicer, tell them you are an heir, and ask about successor in interest status, which is a federal protection that lets an heir speak with the servicer and take over payments without qualifying for a new loan. Ask for a written payoff at the same time. A reverse mortgage works differently and has its own deadline after the borrower dies, usually measured in months, so make that call first if there is one.

Nobody has paid the taxes since the funeral. How bad is it?

Common, and fixable. Unpaid taxes go to the county tax sale in late August, and from that sale date the heirs have two years to redeem, with interest running at 1.5% per month. You have not lost the house. Call the Chancery Clerk in the county where it sits and ask for the redemption figure and the exact deadline. Ask for Land Redemption. Harrison County has two judicial districts, so use the one your property sits in: 228-865-4036 in Gulfport for District 1, which covers Gulfport, Long Beach, Pass Christian and Saucier, and 228-435-8220 in Biloxi for District 2, which covers Biloxi and D'Iberville. In Jackson County, Land Records and Land Redemption is 228-769-3131. If the amount is manageable, paying it yourselves is the cheapest answer, and that is fine with us.