New Iowa Law Makes Keeping Farm Together Easier

No family wants to end up in court arguing over how inherited farmland will be divided. It's even more discouraging when one owner wants to keep the land, but the court orders all the owners to sell. Iowa just passed a law in 2018 that allows a way to equalize the property without a sale. The result: Person(s) wanting to sell can get cash out, while owner(s) preferring to keep the family farm are not forced to sell. Only 10 other states have a similar law: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and South Carolina.In most states, disputes between owners who inherit land and cannot agree on how to split the property often end up with the court ordering a "partition by sale." Then the proceeds from the sale are proportionally divided among all the owners.Alternatively, a more congenial way to divide property is "partition in kind" where the parcels are physically divided to carve out a separate piece for each owner. Then each owner can do what he or she wants to do with the individual pieces of land. However, it is difficult sometimes to divide the land into equal portions or the parties are opposed to the land being divided this way.