Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Texas

Re: Paying taxes

You mother could sell her fractional interest only. In order to sell the whole property, all of the other owners would have to agree. If no probate, administration or affidavit of heirship has been carried out, then an extra step may be necessary before the property can be sold.

If your mother's only interest is to stop paying taxes, she can do that. If no one pays the taxes, the county will eventually take the land. Your mother would not have any personal liability for doing that. However, she would also lose the property, not get any credit for taxes paid, and not realize any proceeds from a sale.

On the other hand, if she wants to recover her fair share from sale of the property, the first thing would be to try to get agreement from all of the other owners. She should make it clear to the other owners that she wants to be reimbursed for the taxes she has paid, since they have not helped out with that. Note that any profits (such as rents) which she may have collected are supposed to be owned by all of the owners, so she may end up owning them money. If everyone agrees, then the property can be sold, and the proceeds divided according to the agreement.

If everyone is not agreeable, or doesn't want to give her credit, or perhaps if some owners can't be found, then in order to sell the property, your mother would have to file either a partition or a Chapter 29 forced sale lawsuit to get the court to order sale or partition of the property. After that, she would either get her fair share of proceeds of sale, or a 100% interest in a portion of the property which she could then sell on her own. This lawsuit option will cost her several thousand dollars, but it is pretty foolproof, and it is the only way to get this done without agreement by everyone.