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Oct 26, 2026
The Washington Post’s “Why inheriting a home can be more costly than anybody imagines” examines inherited-property expenses and family disagreements.
For Louisiana families, that raises a practical estate-planning question: How will the person who inherits the house afford to keep it?
A home can be valuable without producing the cash needed to pay its expenses. Even a mortgage-free house needs insurance, property taxes, utilities, repairs, and maintenance. Leaving it to several children adds another question: who will make decisions when their budgets and priorities differ?
At Field Law, we ask about those costs during our planning conversations. Deciding who gets the house is only part of the work. We also want to know whether the proposed inheritance will function the way the owner intends.
Before leaving the house, talk about what keeping it requires
If you want a child to live in your home, start with the actual annual expenses. Review insurance premiums, taxes, any mortgage, routine upkeep, and repairs likely to become necessary. Consider whether the intended recipient could handle a major expense shortly after your death.
The answers may change the plan. A child may want the house but lack the income to maintain it. Another may be able to afford the expenses but have no interest in living there. Several children may want to keep a family home or camp while having very different ideas about how often they will use it or how much they should contribute.
Discuss those facts with your lawyer while there is time to make deliberate choices. A plan should not depend on an unspoken assumption that one child will pay the bills and everyone will work it out later.
Consider leaving resources and instructions with the house
For some families, a trust can hold the home together with funds designated for its expenses. The trust can identify who manages the property, who may occupy it, which costs the trust pays, and when a sale should be considered. Louisiana Revised Statutes 9:1731 defines a trust as an arrangement in which a trustee holds title and administers property as a fiduciary for another’s benefit.
The funding matters as much as the document. A trust that receives only the house may still leave the trustee searching for money when the insurance premium or repair bill arrives. The plan should identify where the reserve will come from, how long it is intended to last, and what happens if it runs low.
For example, an owner might want a child to remain in the home for a transition period. The plan could provide a maintenance reserve, assign utilities and routine expenses to the occupant, and establish a deadline to purchase the home or prepare it for sale. The amounts, timing, and responsibilities should fit that family’s circumstances.
Other families may prefer to leave the home to one child and use other assets to benefit the others. Equal treatment does not always require making every child a co-owner of every asset.
Build the sharing plan into the estate plan
If your goal is for the children to keep the property together, tell your lawyer how you expect that arrangement to work.
Who may live there? Who schedules use of a camp? Who approves repairs? Must everyone contribute to a reserve? What happens when a child cannot afford their share, wants to leave the arrangement, or dies?
Those decisions can inform the will and any related trust provisions. A testamentary trust can be created through a properly executed will under R.S. 9:1751, allowing the owner to provide management instructions as part of the estate plan.
If the children will receive outright ownership shares, we can also discuss a coordinated co-owner agreement and how it should be put in place. A signed agreement among the owners is different from a parent’s statement of wishes. Not every contractual obligation can simply be imposed on future owners by adding a paragraph to a will.
There are also limits on preventing division of inherited property. Civil Code article 807 generally gives a co-owner the right to demand partition. Article 1300 specifically addresses a donor’s or testator’s restriction on partition, including possible judicial relief after five years under its stated conditions. A direction to “keep the house in the family forever” should not be treated as a complete or indefinitely enforceable plan. Our guide to whether one heir can force the sale of an inherited house explains the partition process when co-owners cannot agree.
A workable plan gives the family a way to keep the property and a way to respond if that becomes impractical. The documents must also account for the owner’s actual interest, any spouse’s rights, and any applicable forced-heirship protections.
If someone has already died, agree on the immediate expenses first
When there is no workable plan, our advice to heirs is practical: get on the same page early, before unpaid bills and deferred maintenance narrow the options.
Start by identifying the ownership interests, any surviving spouse’s usufruct, and who has authority to manage or sell the property. Then assemble the insurance information, mortgage statements, tax bills, utilities, and urgent repair needs.
The family needs an interim arrangement even if it has not decided whether to keep the house. Who will pay this month’s expenses? Who will check on the property? How will advances be documented? When will the family make a final decision? Our article on who pays property taxes, insurance, and repairs during a succession explains the expense and reimbursement questions.
If no one can afford the home, or the heirs cannot agree on a realistic way to maintain it, we may recommend moving promptly toward a sale. That means obtaining the necessary authority and preparing an orderly sale while the family still has choices. It does not mean accepting the first low offer or allowing one heir to sign for everyone. Our guide to selling a house before a succession is complete explains the authority and title questions.
Unfortunately, waiting for complete family harmony can become expensive. A decision to keep the house needs a budget, responsible people, and deadlines.
A co-owner agreement should cover the bills and the eventual exit
Field Law prepares co-owner agreements addressing how shared property will be used, managed, maintained, and eventually sold. Civil Code article 801 expressly recognizes agreement among all co-owners as the basis for determining use and management.
Depending on the property and the family, the agreement can address:
- Contributions for insurance, taxes, maintenance, and reserves.
- Management responsibility and approval of significant expenditures.
- Occupancy, personal use, rentals, and accounting for income.
- Advances when one owner pays another’s share.
- Approval and reimbursement of improvements.
- Buyout procedures, valuation, sale deadlines, and distribution of net proceeds.
Reimbursement deserves particular attention. Paying for a repair is not necessarily the same as paying for a renovation, and neither automatically increases someone’s ownership percentage. Article 806 addresses reimbursement for specified necessary and maintenance expenses, including a reduction for the paying co-owner’s enjoyment of the property. Article 804 separately addresses substantial alterations and improvements.
Suppose one sibling wants to spend $30,000 renovating an inherited kitchen. Before work begins, the owners should decide whether they approve it and whether reimbursement will depend on actual cost, added value, an agreed cap, or another formula. They should also address what happens if the eventual sale proceeds are insufficient. A receipt alone does not resolve those questions.
Plan for the ownership you are creating
If you currently own a home you hope to leave to your family, discuss its expenses and future management with your lawyer now. If you have already inherited shared property, establish the payment and decision-making arrangements before disagreements become arrears or deterioration.
Field Law helps Louisiana owners coordinate wills, trusts, and implementation. We also help heirs address succession requirements for inherited property and prepare co-owner agreements when the family wants to retain shared property.
Request a free consultation to discuss who should receive the house, how its expenses will be paid, and what should happen if keeping it is no longer practical.
Page updated 10/26/26. Attorney information: Morgan Field, Managing Attorney. This page provides general information and does not create an attorney-client relationship.
