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| The rental arrangement came out of one of many court decisions during a very complicated and contentious estate case. There was not a written lease because several heirs owned equal shares of an undivided property with all being siblings, and two of the siblings being active farmers.
If memory serves me, the court ruled that the active farmers would each farm half of the land and pay rent to the non-farming heirs. Since the shares were a percent of total acreage and not specific parcels with legal descriptions, a lease could not be written. At that time, I had no reason to distrust the sibling who became my tenant, so I went along with the way he did things. Everything went smoothly for a few years without a lease until tenant’s refusal to communicate or pay rent to me. He continued to communicate and pay rent to another sibling who owned a share of the acres, so he was aware that he owed rent. As mentioned in a previous post, a judge also ruled that he owed me rent.
About 9 months ago I sold my shares to the other heirs, including the tenant. I did not want to, but it seemed like the only solution. Now I am just evaluating whether it is worth starting yet another battle to collect several years of unpaid rent. The posts here indicate I should give it strong consideration, which I am.
Step one is finding an attorney that specializes in this field and can get results. I have not received any recommendations, so I am in the research stage.
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