Negotiating ownership: the paradox of heirs' property

Description of research project

This project uses the case of heirs’ property to explore the role of property law in perpetuating racial
disparities in homeownership and wealth accumulation. When a person dies without a will, their
property is classified as heirs’ property, and becomes collectively owned by the deceased owner’s
living descendants. Heirs’ property occurs more often amongst non-White and low-income
homeowners. Compared to owners who purchase through the formal housing market, heirs’
property owners face a greater risk of displacement and are limited in the ways they can exercise
rights typically associated with ownership. For example, they cannot use their property for loan
collateral, and often times, they are rejected from state benefits—like disaster recovery aid and home
repair financial assistance—because of their ownership status.

Using property transaction data and semi-structured interviews with heirs’ property owners and
traditional homeowners in Charleston, SC, this project explores how heirs navigate ownership
responsibilities despite tenuous property rights, how both homeowner groups make sense of their
ownership status, and offers policy remedies that reduce heirs’ property ownership precarity. This
project ultimately seeks to interrogate how legal distinctions in ownership naturalize and obscure
socially constructed notions of property that create racial inequalities in wealth accumulation.

Description of Work Assignment

Duties and responsibilities may include, but are not limited to: de-identifying interview transcripts,
document review of property records, assembling a Zotero bibliography, and meeting weekly with
the supervising graduate student. Training in qualitative analysis will be provided. All work will be
conducted remotely.

Supervising Faculty Member: Alford Young, Jr.

Graduate Student: Jasmine Simington

Contact Information: Please email jsimingt@umich.edu (include SURO in your subject line) with a
1-2 paragraph statement explaining your interest in the project by 12/21/2022.

Average hours of work per week: 6-9

Range of credit hours student can earn: 2-3

Number of positions available: 1-2