Intestate Succession and Heir Property: Implications for Future Research on the Persistence of Poverty in Central Appalachia

摘要

When a person dies without a will, the State effectively supplies a will by default via the laws of intestate succession. The laws of intestate succession may trigger a transfer of real property - "Land, and generally whatever is erected or growing upon or affixed to land" (Black 1983, 636) - in the form of tenancy in common. Tenancy in common is a form of joint ownership in which cotenants have an undivided partial interest in property. If a cotenant dies intestate, any interest in property passes to his heirs (Black).