Note: BCP Real Estate is not a law firm and its employees/owners are not acting as your attorneys. The information contained on this website is provided for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter.
When several people inherit a property together, the tax bill doesn’t split itself into neat, enforceable portions. The county sends one bill for the whole property, and it expects the whole thing paid. So when one co-owner won’t or can’t contribute, the others are left with a hard choice: cover the shortfall themselves or watch the account go delinquent.
This is a built-in weakness of shared ownership. Each heir holds an undivided share, which gives everyone the same stake in the property but no easy way to force another co-owner to pay up. You can keep the taxes current out of your own pocket, but that doesn’t automatically reduce the non-paying owner’s share or increase yours. Meanwhile, if nobody covers it, the consequences land on everyone equally.
Those consequences are real. Unpaid Texas property taxes build penalties and interest, and a delinquent account can be turned over and made the subject of a lawsuit. When that happens, a constable or deputy may serve a citation and an Original Petition naming the heirs, including the ones who were trying to do the right thing. The county isn’t sorting out who paid and who didn’t; it’s collecting on the property as a whole.
If you’re tired of carrying co-owners who won’t pull their weight, you have options. You can talk to an attorney about your rights to recover what you’ve paid, the family can try to negotiate a buyout, or you can sell your own undivided share and step out of the arrangement entirely. Selling your portion ends your exposure to the unpaid taxes and the lawsuit, and the remaining owners keep their shares and their obligations.
A couple of questions we hear a lot:
If I’ve been paying all the taxes, do I own more of the property? Not automatically. Paying more than your share may give you certain rights to seek reimbursement, which an attorney can explain, but it doesn’t change the ownership percentages on its own.
Can I get out without chasing the other owners for their share? Yes. You can sell your own interest without settling up with anyone else first. Selling removes you from the property and the lawsuit; whatever the other owners owe stays with them.
If you’re looking to remove yourself from a lawsuit and get paid for your interest, no cost to you, call or text us at (469) 708-8003 for an offer today.
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