{"id":758669,"date":"2026-07-12T14:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T14:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/758669\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T14:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T14:37:15","slug":"one-hurdle-to-resolving-sc-heirs-property-issues-removed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/758669\/","title":{"rendered":"One hurdle to resolving SC heirs\u2019 property issues removed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clearing up heirs’ property ownership in South Carolina<\/a> is an arduous and costly process that could also result in higher property taxes\u00a0\u2014 until a new state law was passed this year.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s uncommon to see tax legislation move through the Statehouse with bipartisan support and unanimous votes in the House and Senate, but that\u2019s what happened with the “Heirs’ Property Tax Relief Act<\/a>” sponsored by Rep. Kathy Landing, R-Mount Pleasant, and encouraged by East Cooper settlement community leaders and housing advocates.<\/p>\n

Heirs\u2019 properties have unclear ownership, often due to being passed down through families for generations without going through probate and the legal process of updating the title<\/a>. A long-dead relative’s name might be on the deed of a property owned collectively by all of the relative’s descendants.<\/p>\n

Landing, a certified financial planner for 30 years<\/a>, said a clear property title is a key to building generational wealth, but the fear of sharply increased property tax bills had been a deterrent to resolving ownership issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s a pretty simple answer,\u201d she said. \u201cIf we simply would \u2026 let the land transfer to the current generation without that triggering a reassessment.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the Heirs\u2019 Property Tax Relief Act did. The law says that when a property\u2019s ownership is transferred \u201csolely for the purpose of clearing or consolidating title to heirs’ property among qualified family members\u201d that won\u2019t trigger a reassessment, though an application for the exemption must be filed with the county assessor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have is an example of how, when people come together, good things happen,\u201d said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, a co-sponsor of the legislation.<\/p>\n

Reassessment is when the taxable value of a property is updated, sometimes with a dramatic property tax impact, and in South Carolina that can be initiated by a change in ownership. Clearing the title to an heirs\u2019 property doesn\u2019t change who owns the property, but rather, records who the current owners are.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo us, this was a priority bill because it removed a barrier of affordability facing so many heirs\u2019 owners,\u201d said Nancy Lee, executive director of Habitat for Humanity South Carolina. \u201cThis new law removes a disincentive that previously existed in our state where families had to risk being unable to afford property taxes just to clear a title for land, or a home, that they rightfully owned.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Carolina heirs\u2019 properties are often owned by Black families whose ancestors bought land after the Civil War, when they were no longer enslaved. Many such properties can be found in what are known as settlement communities, such as Snowden and Phillips and 10-Mile in the East Cooper area<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Snowden-2.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Sunlight illuminates the homes in the unincorporated Snowden community, along the marsh by Foster Creek Thursday, July 9, 2026. The Long Point subdivision sits in the background, in Mount Pleasant.<\/p>\n

Gavin McIntyre\/Staff<\/p>\n

\u201cI live in Snowden and we still have properties in dead peoples\u2019 names and people living on (the properties),\u201d said Freddie Jenkins, president of the African American Settlement Historic Commission<\/a>. \u201cA lot of people just let it stay the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

But without clear ownership a property can\u2019t be borrowed against or built upon or sold. It\u2019s common for people living on heirs\u2019 properties to have trailer homes as a result of being unable to obtain construction loans or mortgages; trailer homes are typically financed and taxed like automobiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t do anything with heirs\u2019 property but farm and maybe put a mobile home on it,\u201d said Landing.<\/p>\n

Heirs\u2019 property risks<\/p>\n

With unclear ownership, heirs\u2019 property owners might not get paid<\/a> if the government takes land for a road project or other public purpose. They could face challenges accessing disaster recovery assistanc<\/a>e after a hurricane or flood and could be unable to get home insurance if there\u2019s a home on the property. Also heirs\u2019 property owners face challenges that others do not in delinquent tax sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an issue in many cities and states. Some major cities, such as Philadelphia, see heirs\u2019 property as a housing affordability issue and have initiated programs<\/a> to help people clear what are referred to in Philadelphia as “tangled titles.”<\/p>\n

Landing said the legislation she sponsored to address the property tax issue began when she met with settlement community leaders in the boardroom of a bank in Mount Pleasant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sat down with Kathy and told her some of the issues in her district that needed to be addressed,\u201d said Jenkins.<\/p>\n

Richard Habersham, leader of the Phillips community, said heirs\u2019 property was long seen as a way to keep land in the family, to have a place descendants could return to live.<\/p>\n

However, communal but unofficial property ownership has resulted in many properties being lost through tax sales or partition sales \u2014 when one heir decides they want their share and force a sale.<\/p>\n

Resolving heirs\u2019 property title issues can mean tracing every descendant of the original owner and hiring lawyers. For example, in 2019 the great-great-great grandchildren and other descendants of Cain Bryan, who had bought land in the East Cooper area in 1875, cleared up the title and sold 14 acres after years of research and court rulings.<\/p>\n

There were 144 heirs involved<\/a>, each with a fractional ownership of the property determined by the family tree.<\/p>\n

Sales of land that used to be heirs\u2019 property would not be changed by the new tax law. Relief would only be for relatives addressing title issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just glad we could get it across the finish line,\u201d said Rep. Michael Rivers Sr., D-Beaufort. \u201cIt\u2019s an excellent first start.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bill that failed<\/p>\n

While lawmakers approved and the governor signed the Heirs\u2019 Property Tax Relief Act, a bill aimed at helping heirs\u2019 property owners in delinquent tax sales didn\u2019t make it out of committee in the House or Senate.<\/p>\n

The problem that legislation aimed to address was the disparate way heirs\u2019 property owners are treated in some counties if the property goes to a delinquent tax sale. In those sales, property owners have a year to reclaim their land or home by paying what was owed, and if they don\u2019t then it goes to the highest bidder \u2014 but some counties won\u2019t let heirs\u2019 pay off the debt because it\u2019s not clear they\u2019re an owner.<\/p>\n

The result is that in counties with that practice, an heirs\u2019 property is likely lost forever if it goes into a delinquent tax sale, unlike other properties in the same situation. In Dorchester County a group of relatives lost an heirs\u2019 property that way<\/a>, over a $112 tax bill, then challenged the county\u2019s policies and lost after an eight-year court fight.<\/p>\n

The state legislation<\/a> that didn\u2019t make it out of committee would have allowed anyone to pay off the debt during the one-year redemption period following a delinquent tax auction, without changing the ownership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clearing up heirs’ property ownership in South Carolina is an arduous and costly process that could also result…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[324871,28,324867,324868,324872,147,530,324869,324870],"class_list":["post-758669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-black-land-loss","tag-business","tag-heirs-property-in-south-carolina","tag-heirs-property-issues","tag-kathy-landing","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-property-tax-bills","tag-settlement-communities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}