COLUMBIA - A bill meant to help the descendants of slaves preserve their
family land gained approval Thursday in a Senate subcommittee.
Heirs' property is land granted to or bought by former slaves after
emancipation.
It passed through generations, often without a will, leaving it held by as
many as a hundred heirs with no clear title and vulnerable to sale.
Any one heir can go to a judge seeking the value of their property, and the
only way to get that value is to sell the land. Sometimes developers buy an
interest from an heir and force the courts to auction the land.
The proposal would give owners of heirs' property the right of first refusal
to buy the land at fair market value before it's divided up.
The bill now heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
