Can a Sibling Force the Sale of an Inherited House in New York? A Long Island Partition Attorney Explains RPAPL 901 and the Heirs Property Buyout (2026)

Can a sibling force the sale of an inherited house in New York?

Yes. A sibling who co-owns an inherited house in New York can force its sale by filing a partition action in the Supreme Court of the county where the property sits. RPAPL 901 gives every tenant in common that right, regardless of how small their share is, and the other siblings cannot defeat it simply by refusing or outvoting them.

When siblings inherit a house in New York, whether under a will or through intestacy, they almost always take title as tenants in common. Each sibling owns an undivided fractional share of the whole property. Nobody owns the kitchen or the upstairs. That structure is exactly why the partition remedy exists: the law will not chain co-owners to each other forever, so any one of them can ask the court to divide the property or, far more commonly with a single family home, order it sold and the proceeds divided.

Here is the hard truth I give families in my Nassau County practice every month. If one sibling truly wants out, the house is eventually getting sold or that sibling is getting bought out. There is no third option where everyone keeps their share and the unhappy sibling just waits. The real questions are the ones the rest of this article answers: on what terms, at what price, with what credits, and how much of the value the family burns in legal fees getting there.

What is a partition action in New York?

A partition action is a lawsuit under Article 9 of the New York Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law in which a co-owner of real property asks the court to divide the property among the owners or sell it and divide the proceeds. Because a single family home cannot be physically split, New York courts almost always order a sale under RPAPL 915 when partition in kind would prejudice the owners.

Partition applies to any co-owned property, not just inherited ones. Unmarried couples who bought a house together, siblings who inherited from their parents, business partners on a deed, all of them can use it. The court's job is not to decide who deserves the house more. It is to unwind a co-ownership that at least one owner no longer wants, and to account for what each owner put in and took out along the way.

How does a partition action work, step by step?

A New York partition action follows a predictable sequence, and each stage carries its own typical duration.

What is the heirs property buyout right under RPAPL 993?

RPAPL 993, New York's Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, gives co-owners of inherited family property the right to buy out a co-owner who files for partition, at a court-determined appraised value, before any forced sale can happen. The law generally applies when the owners took title from a relative and there is no binding co-ownership agreement, which describes most inherited homes on Long Island.

This statute exists because the old system was brutal to families. Before 2019, a speculator could buy one heir's small share, file for partition, and force the family home to a courthouse auction where it sold for a fraction of market value. RPAPL 993 rebuilt the process around three protections: a real appraisal instead of a fire-sale guess, a buyout election that lets the family keep the house by paying the exiting owner fair value for their share, and, if a sale must happen, a broker listing on the open market instead of an auction on the courthouse steps.

The practical lesson cuts both ways. If you are the sibling who wants to keep the house, the buyout right is your tool, but it is not free: you need to actually fund the purchase of your sibling's share within the court's deadlines, so line up financing before you dig in. If you are the sibling who wants out, understand that heirs property procedure adds months to the case, and a negotiated buyout at a price everyone can live with will almost always put money in your pocket a year sooner than a forced sale.

What if my sibling lives in the inherited house and refuses to sell or leave?

A sibling living in an inherited house cannot block a partition action by refusing to sell or refusing to move. Their occupancy does not defeat the other owners' rights under RPAPL 901. What they generally do not owe is rent: under New York law, a co-owner in sole possession is usually not liable to the other co-owners for use and occupancy unless they have ousted them, meaning actively excluded them from the property.

Ouster is a specific thing, not just an unpleasant attitude. In practice it looks like changing the locks, denying a sibling entry, removing a sibling's belongings, or flatly claiming the house belongs to the occupant alone. Once there is an ouster, the occupying sibling can be charged for the fair rental value of the property in the partition accounting, and on a Long Island home that number can run tens of thousands of dollars a year, which dramatically changes the final split.

The flip side matters just as much, and it is the part that surprises the siblings who feel cheated. The occupying sibling who has been paying the property taxes, the homeowners insurance, the mortgage, and the necessary repairs out of pocket is building up credits under RPAPL 945 that come off the top of the sale proceeds. The sibling everyone describes as living there for free is sometimes owed money at the end, not the other way around. Bring the receipts either way, because the accounting is decided on documents, not on family memory.

What you cannot do is treat your sibling like a tenant. You cannot serve them with an eviction notice, and a landlord-tenant court will toss a holdover case between co-owners because there is no landlord and no tenant, just two owners. The partition action, with its accounting and its sale or buyout, is the legal exit from that standoff. I have watched families spend years in an angry stalemate that a partition case would have resolved, with credits fairly counted, in about a year.

How much does a partition action cost and who pays for it?

Court costs in a New York partition action start with a $210 index number fee and a $95 request for judicial intervention, so the filing fees themselves total a few hundred dollars. The real cost is attorney fees, appraisal fees, and referee fees, which can run into the tens of thousands in a fully litigated case. Under RPAPL 981, the costs of the action are generally paid out of the sale proceeds or apportioned among the owners by their shares.

Each side generally pays its own attorney. A court can charge fees incurred for the common benefit of all the owners against the proceeds, since the work of getting the property appraised, sold, and accounted for benefits everyone on the deed, but nobody should file a partition assuming the other side will fund their lawyer.

Then there is the math nobody in the family wants to do out loud. Every dollar spent litigating comes out of the same pot of family money the fight is supposedly about. A contested partition that burns $40,000 in combined fees on a $600,000 house took more than 6 percent of the estate off the table. That is why I push hard for a negotiated buyout or an agreed listing in the first 60 days, before positions harden and the meter really starts running.

How long does a partition action take in New York?

A negotiated resolution, a buyout or an agreed sale reached under the pressure of a filed partition action, commonly wraps up in a few months. A litigated partition of an inherited Long Island home usually takes one to two years from filing to distribution, and heirs property cases under RPAPL 993 often run longer because the appraisal, election, and open-market sale steps each add months.

How do I keep the house if my sibling wants to sell?

You keep the house by buying your sibling out, and everything else is a delay tactic. The good news is that New York law is now built to help you do exactly that. If the home qualifies as heirs property, RPAPL 993 gives you a formal election to purchase your sibling's share at a court-supervised appraised value, and even outside the statute, a negotiated buyout is how the overwhelming majority of these cases end.

Start with the number: get your own appraisal, figure out what the share is actually worth after subtracting your credits for taxes and repairs you paid, and find your financing, whether that is a mortgage on the property, a home equity loan, or estate funds. What does not work is stalling, refusing to participate, or hoping your sibling gives up. RPAPL 901 means the case moves with or without you, and an owner who defaults loses the chance to shape the appraisal, claim their credits, or elect the buyout. If title is clouded, for example a deed problem or an old mortgage from your parents that was paid off but never discharged, deal with it now through a quiet title action, because no buyout lender and no buyer will close over a defective title.