Tangled Title
June 12, 2025
Tangled title. It sounds like the name of a rock band but in reality it’s a serious issue that is impacting people in rural and urban areas alike. When someone passes away without a clear will or deed of who will take possession of the property, the result is a property that needs the permission of all owners, usually multiple family members, in order to make improvements to that property. These properties are also known as heirs properties.
In the United States there are over 500,000 of these types of properties worth over $30B and unless everyone who may have a claim to them agrees, it is harder to get loans, build new homes, get disaster relief or even insurance. And if you can’t pay taxes it might also lead to the property having a tax lien or worse taken away by the government. Many of these properties with tangled titles are those of rural black farmers in southern states.
Fortunately some places are working on solutions. At last year’s Mpact Transit+Community conference, James Leonard from the City of Philadelphia Department of Records shared what they are doing to address the issue and untangle titles for some of the 10,000 properties where this issue exists. This includes funding for getting legal help to comb through over 900 cases so far.
When a title is untangled, it can also open up potential for residents to invest in their communities which are already existing and strong, but some members just didn’t have clear ownership of their properties.
This is yet another example of how our housing problem is multifaceted and difficult, but solvable if we address the issues directly. Many who own homes wouldn’t think twice about whether they have title claims to the land or properties they own, and if they did they are likely wealthy enough to hire a lawyer to fix it. But the impacts of these problems hit the most vulnerable among us more acutely.
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