When the heirs don't agree about the house

One sibling wants the money, one wants to keep it, one hasn't returned a call since the funeral. This is the most common hard situation in probate real estate, and it has a limited number of endings. Here is who actually controls the house, what each side can do, and what resolves these in practice.

Why this is so common

A house is indivisible and emotionally loaded. Cash splits cleanly; a childhood home does not. Add the fact that heirs frequently live in different cities, different financial situations, and different stages of grief, and disagreement is close to the default.

It is also worth naming: the person who lives nearest usually ends up doing all the work — the yard, the mail, the calls — and often resents the ones who don't. That resentment tends to show up disguised as a disagreement about price.

First question: who actually owns the house right now

Almost every one of these arguments is being had by people who do not agree on this, and the answer changes what anyone can do.

If there is no will, D.C. Code § 19–301 provides that a deceased person's District real estate, if not devised, descends in fee simple, and that the heirs specified by the section take the real estate as tenants in common in the same proportions as they take the surplus personal estate. So intestate heirs are co-owners from the date of death — not applicants waiting for a court to hand them something. The proportions come from the rest of Chapter 3: § 19–302 sets the surviving spouse's or domestic partner's share (the entire estate with no descendant or parent surviving; two-thirds where all surviving descendants are also the spouse's and the spouse has no other descendants; three-fourths where no descendant but a parent survives; one-half in the blended-family cases), § 19–305 sends the surplus onward, § 19–306 divides equally among children where there are children and no other descendants, and § 19–307 lets a deceased child's children stand in their parent's place, with those in equal degree taking equal shares.

If there is a will, the house goes where the will sends it, and until the estate is administered the personal representative — not the legatees — is the one dealing with it.

See no will, so who inherits the DC house for the full intestacy map, and the house that was never probated if title has been sitting untouched for a generation.

The personal representative can usually sell without unanimous consent

Families are regularly told that everyone has to agree before the house can be sold. That is not how Title 20 works.

§ 20–741 lists the powers a personal representative may exercise without court authorization, and they are broad. Paragraph (6) allows the representative to acquire or dispose of property, real or personal, including land in this or another jurisdiction, for cash or on credit, at public or private sale, and to manage, improve, exchange or partition an estate asset. Paragraph (25) separately allows the representative to lease, grant options to purchase, or sell any real or personal property of the estate — except property specifically devised or bequeathed under the will — at public or private sale, and to borrow money to protect it. Paragraph (17) allows hiring appraisers, brokers and attorneys; paragraph (12) allows insuring the property.

Two limits matter here. First, that carve-out for specifically devised property: if the will leaves the house to a named person, the representative's general sale power does not reach it. Second, the power is a fiduciary power. It exists to administer the estate — pay claims, expenses and taxes, and distribute what's left — not to settle scores. A representative who is unsure can always use § 20–742 and petition the Court at any time for permission to act, which is often the right move in a genuinely contested estate even though it costs time.

Whether the administration is supervised changes the paperwork more than the power — see supervised vs unsupervised administration and what a personal representative actually owes the estate.

What an objecting heir can actually do

This is the part nobody explains, and it is why bluffing is so common. An heir who opposes a sale is not powerless, but the tools are specific and each has a clock.

• Freeze the order of sale (§ 20–703). Any interested person may move the Court to place a priority on the sale or transfer of estate property, real or personal. Once that motion is filed, no sale or transfer of that property may be undertaken until all interested persons have been given notice by the personal representative and the Court, after a hearing, has determined the order in which estate property is to be sold. This is the single most direct brake on a pending sale, and it is the one most families have never heard of.
• Object to a proposed distribution (§ 20–1102). The representative is to distribute in kind to the extent possible, and the residuary estate is distributed in kind where there is no objection and undivided interests can practicably be distributed; otherwise residuary property may be converted to cash. After the probable claims are known the representative may send a proposal for distribution to everyone with a right to object — and the right to object terminates if it is not made in writing received within 30 days of mailing or delivery. Property distributed in kind is valued at fair market value as of the date of distribution, and for assets without readily ascertainable values a valuation dated no more than 30 days before distribution controls.
• Attack an insider sale (§ 20–743.01). A sale to the personal representative, the representative's spouse, agent or attorney, or an entity in which they hold a substantial beneficial interest — or any transaction affected by a substantial conflict of interest — may be set aside, at the instance of any interested person except one who consented after fair disclosure, unless the will or a contract of the decedent authorized it or the Court approved it after notice. This is the statute behind one heir or the PR buying the estate house.
• Seek removal (§ 20–526). The Court shall remove a personal representative on a finding of misrepresentation in the appointment proceedings, wilful disregard of a court order, inability for any reason to discharge the duties effectively, mismanagement of property, or failure without reasonable excuse to perform a material duty. A hearing comes first, and on receiving notice of it the representative may exercise only the powers of a special administrator — which in practice stops a sale in its tracks. Disagreeing with the representative's judgment is not, by itself, any of the five grounds.

The realistic options

1. One heir buys the others out

Often the cleanest outcome, and the one that keeps the house in the family. It requires an agreed value and financing — a refinance, a purchase loan, sometimes an estate or probate loan. The value question is where it stalls, which is why a neutral, documented opinion of value matters more here than anywhere else. If the buyer is the personal representative or a relative of one, structure it around § 20–743.01 from the start: written consent after fair disclosure from every interested person, or advance Court approval after notice.

2. Everyone sells and splits the proceeds

The most common ending. Proceeds go to the estate and are distributed through it, so the split follows the will or DC intestacy rules — not a handshake, and not who paid for what.

3. Take it in kind and co-own it on purpose

§ 20–1102(c) allows the residuary estate to be distributed in kind where undivided interests can practicably be distributed and nobody objects. Heirs who genuinely want to keep the house can end administration as co-owners — but then they are cotenants with no fiduciary to break ties, and the next disagreement is a partition case rather than a probate one. If you choose this, paper it: a written cotenancy agreement covering expenses, occupancy, buyout price and what happens on a death.

4. Keep it and rent it

Workable if the property is in rentable condition and one heir will genuinely manage it. Be honest about DC's landlord-tenant environment — it is among the most tenant-protective in the country, and an accidental landlord who doesn't know the rules can create expensive problems. Read TOPA and the inherited DC rental before the first lease, not after.

5. Partition

The backstop. Since February 2023 a DC partition action involving tenants in common runs under the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act procedures at §§ 16–2931 to 16–2941: the court fixes fair market value, cotenants who did not ask for a sale get a statutory buyout right at that value times the selling cotenant's fraction, and only then does the court reach division in kind or a court-supervised open-market sale. It is slower and more public than a normal sale, and it reliably ends family relationships — but it is no longer an automatic auction. The detail is in partition actions for inherited DC property.

When one heir is living in the house

This is the hardest variant, and the one where waiting costs the most. An heir in possession is paying nothing while the estate carries taxes, insurance and utilities, and every month that passes makes the eventual conversation worse.

Two provisions are worth knowing. In a partition case, § 16–2901(c) provides that where a tenant in common has received the rents and profits of the property to his own use, he may be required to account to his cotenants for their respective shares, and amounts found due may be charged against that party's share in the property or in the sale proceeds. Separately, when a court decides between dividing property and selling it, § 16–2937(a) directs it to weigh the lawful use a cotenant is making of the property and the harm of losing that use — alongside the degree to which each cotenant has contributed a pro rata share of taxes, insurance, maintenance and upkeep. Occupancy helps the occupant; not paying the carrying costs does not.

During administration, though, the house is estate property and the personal representative has both the power and the duty to protect it (§ 20–741(6), (7), (12)). If an occupant will not cooperate, or refuses access for a valuation or a showing, that is a legal problem — and it is one to take to the attorney and the Court early rather than negotiating alone for a year.

The settlement most families never write down

Almost every one of these ends in an agreement. The families that do well write it down early, while everyone is still speaking.

A workable family agreement about a DC estate house names: the value and how it was determined; who, if anyone, has the right to buy and by what date; who pays carrying costs in the meantime and whether those are reimbursed off the top; who may occupy the property and on what terms; what happens if financing fails; and who chooses the agent if it goes to market. Have the estate's attorney paper it — one afternoon of drafting is cheaper than the first contested filing.

Two statutory notes. § 16–2932(a) provides that real property shall be partitioned under the heirs-property subchapter unless all the cotenants agree otherwise in a record — so a written agreement genuinely changes the default framework, in both directions. And if a sale is coming, § 16–2934(b) is a useful standard to borrow even out of court: an appraisal is acceptable to the court as evidence of value where it is dated within six months of filing, prepared by a disinterested appraiser licensed in the District, and unobjected to. That is a fair description of the kind of number that settles family arguments.

The thing that actually breaks deadlocks

It also does double duty. The same date-of-death figure drives the heirs' stepped-up basis for capital gains, so a careless number quietly manufactures a tax bill later — see date-of-death valuations in DC and taxes on an inherited DC property.

We'll produce that opinion even when it's obvious the family isn't going to sell this year, and we'll send it to every heir simultaneously so nobody feels handled. No cost, no listing required.

When to bring in a lawyer

Immediately, if: someone is living in the property and won't leave; someone is taking assets or collecting rent; title includes people who are deceased or unlocatable; a § 20–703 motion or a removal petition has been filed; the proposed buyer is the personal representative or a relative of one; or anyone has used the word partition. Those are legal problems wearing a real estate costume, and the 30-day objection window in § 20–1102(d) is short enough that "we'll deal with it later" can decide the outcome for you.

We are a District real estate brokerage, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice. What we can do without cost or commitment is establish the number everything else turns on, in writing, for everyone at once — and tell you honestly what the house is worth in its current condition, contents and all. If you want the wider picture first, start with selling a house in DC probate or how DC probate works step by step.

Sources: D.C. Code Title 20; the Probate Division of the D.C. Superior Court and the Office of the Register of Wills (dccourts.gov); and D.C. Law 25-302, the Strengthening Probate Administration Amendment Act of 2024. Rules change and individual cases vary — confirm anything that affects a decision with the Register of Wills or your own attorney.