(05/13/26) BATON ROUGE, La. — When Leah Carter visits rural towns across Louisiana in her role as the LSU AgCenter’s community and economic development specialist, she makes it a point to ask residents what issues they believe are holding their communities back.

People respond with the same answers over and over: Blighted housing. Run-down downtowns. A lack of economic opportunity and civic pride.

As Carter has learned, a common thread binds these problems together in many communities. Properties — whether vacant land, houses or commercial sites — often have sat in states of decay for years not because there’s no interest in cleaning them up, but because it’s unclear who owns them.

“Sometimes the properties are owned by someone out of state,” Carter said. “And so you may have this dilapidated building, and no one knows what to do. Some people don’t even realize that they own property.”

Many of these parcels of land and buildings were once owned by someone who died without a will or informally handed the property off to a family member. That leads to a legal scenario known as heirs’ property, or undivided property that is inherited by multiple heirs — none of whom can legally claim ownership.

“A lot of people think if land is passed down in the family, then it’s their land,” Carter said. “But ‘family land’ is not a legal term. It belongs to all of the heirs of the property.”

Left unresolved, heirs’ property can end up involving dozens of grandchildren or great-grandchildren of the original owner — all of whom have a stake in the property as fractural owners.

That makes for a significant amount of confusion when someone — perhaps assuming they are the rightful owner — wants to sell the property, request disaster assistance, apply for a loan or sign up for U.S. Department of Agriculture farming grants.

“You’re not able to tap into some of those resources that could boost your economic situation,” Carter said.

It’s also difficult for large groups of distantly related heirs to agree on who’s responsible for upkeep, fueling the cycle of blight that plagues communities across Louisiana.

In 2019, the state was estimated to have at least 175,000 parcels of heirs’ property, Carter said. She wants to get more of those fields, homes and businesses back into commerce.

“You’re talking about a financial asset that can change the lives of a family and change the community as well,” she said.

With help from AgCenter agent Ana-Alicia Gouge, partners at the Southern University Ag Center and grant funding from the Southern Rural Development Center, Carter recently launched a training series that teaches Louisiana residents how to prevent and remedy heirs’ property. An inaugural session was held in Ville Platte in April, and another took place in Lake Providence in May.

The AgCenter is working in those towns on broader community and economic development initiatives through another SRDC grant project, called Providing Resources and Opportunities through Partnerships, or PROPEL.

The heirs’ property training stresses the importance of writing a will.

“Some people may not want to talk about it because, ultimately, you’re talking about death,” Carter said. But, she added, a will is the best defense against complicated heirs’ property situations — and discussions can be framed as a way to ensure the wellbeing of the family and their community down the road.

The program also educates people about what to do if they find themselves as a fractural owner of heirs’ property. Carter said tracking down all the heirs is the first step; sketching out a simple family tree is a good start. Property tax records at the parish tax assessor’s office can reveal additional clues, as can conversations with relatives and neighbors.

From there, a fractural owner has a few options, including buying out the other heirs or creating a trust for the property. Both typically require working with an attorney.

Carter is eager to bring the training to other areas of Louisiana. For more information or to request a session, contact her at LeahCarter@agcenter.lsu.edu or visit www.LSUAgCenter.com/CED.

Participants listen to a presentation during a recent heirs’ property training event in Ville Platte. Photo provided by the Southern University Ag Center