This act only applies to property that is determined by a court to be "heirs property", being defined as real property held in tenancy in common which satisfies all of the following:

• There is no agreement in a record binding all the cotenants which governs the partition of the property;

• One or more of the cotenants acquired title from a relative, whether living or deceased; and

• Any of the following apply: a) Twenty percent or more of the interests are held by cotenants who are relatives, b) twenty percent or more of the interests are held by an individual who acquired title from a relative, whether living or deceased, or c) twenty percent or more of the cotenants are relatives;

Under this act, if any cotenant requests partition by sale of heirs property the court shall send notice to all other cotenants that they may buy all the interests of the cotenant requesting partition by sale.

All cotenants are given 45 days to respond to the court notice. After the expiration of 45 days the following rules apply:

• If only one cotenant elects to buy all the interests of the cotenants that requested partition by sale, the court shall notify all the parties of that fact;

• If more than one cotenant elects to buy all the interests of the cotenants that requested partition by sale, the court shall allocate the right to buy those interests among the electing cotenants based on each electing cotenant's existing fractional ownership of the entire parcel divided by the total existing fractional ownership of all cotenants electing to buy and send notice to all the parties of that fact and of the price to be paid by each electing cotenant;

• If no cotenant elects to buy all the interests of the cotenants that requested partition by sale, the court shall send notice to all the parties of that fact and resolve the partition action through partition in kind or partition by sale, whichever method applies as required by the act.

This act applies to all partition actions filed on or after August 28, 2019.

This act is substantially similar to provisions in the truly agreed to SB 83 (2019) and SB 286 (2019).

SCOTT SVAGERA