Dividing Land to Satisfy Living Trust

[Kimo]

Aloha,

First of all this issue is concerning dividing land with a relative that built a house on my Grandparents land about 20 years ago. Currently mom has taken over the original house that on the 1.4 acres of land, but in order to satisfy my moms trust the land needs to be divided equally in half between two houses so that when my moms passes the land/house she is now the Grantee of can be sold and divided equally among her kids.

Question #1 : What do I have to do to smoothly get accurate estimates of a equal division of the 1.4 acres ? Who do I need to contact ? Can they give me the value of the divisions as well ?

Question 2: If we need too, can we force the relative to sell since the (second house) which is also on the same 1.4 acres except it was built after the primary house owner of the land which was my Grandfather, and is now my mother, the daughter of the original owner of the whole 1.4 acres. What do I have to do to proceed with something like that ?

I'm sorry for the long thread, I'm throwing these questions around in my head as the relative is not helping very much in the matter, but just started renovating her side ... I want to cover my bases before they start building fences.

Thank you ~ James
Alohas

[Mr. Knowitall]

You would need to start by investigating whether the land can lawfully be divided. A real estate professional should be able to advise. If so, you would need a survey. There may be factors such as easements that prevent the land from being equally divided.

By "If we need to", do you mean if the land cannot be divided? Whether or not you can do so easily will depend upon the terms of the trust.

[Kimo]

You would need to start by investigating whether the land can lawfully be divided. A real estate professional should be able to advise. If so, you would need a survey. There may be factors such as easements that prevent the land from being equally divided.

By "If we need to", do you mean if the land cannot be divided? Whether or not you can do so easily will depend upon the terms of the trust.

Thank you very much for your reply,

Lawfully divided ? Could you explain more on that; the land is Agricultural land and I don't know if that will be a negative factor when division is determined, but that's something to think about thanks !

The land does have a easement so we were planning to measure without the easement included, not sure if its legal though ?

The "if we need to" is based on if my Aunt cooperates or not, since her house was not 100% legally built on agricultural land, meaning only one house should have been built 20+ years ago, I was thinking we could force the sale of the whole land if the land could not be divided after my Mother passes. I think my aunts house is grandfathered into the land and that's what confuses me the most about dividing the land. Otherwise the trust does state that the land will be divided equally ... but the catch is, it does not include the land that my aunt lives on, so in the long run the land will be owned by three different children and my aunt or whoever lives in my aunt's house at the time until the land is divided or sold.

My deepest gratitude for your response, as we say in Hawaii ~ Alohapumehana
(Goodbye with sincere affection)