Families stuck on an inherited house usually describe the problem the same way: one person will not agree, so nothing can happen.
In Ohio, that description may not be accurate.
In Buckner v. Hasan, released June 18, 2026, the Eighth District applied R.C. 2127.04(B), under which a probate court may authorize sale of estate real property where “at least 50 percent of all persons interested in the real property have consented to the sale, no person with an aggregate interest in the real property of greater than 25 percent has objected to the sale, and the sale is in the best interest of the estate.”1
Read that carefully. Unanimity is not the standard. An objection, on its own, is not the standard either. What matters is the size of the interest behind the objection.
The court affirmed, alongside a concealment judgment under R.C. 2109.50 and 2109.52.
What this changes about the conversation
“The family cannot agree” is a feeling. The statute asks a different question, and it is one with a numeric answer: what percentage has consented, and what aggregate interest does the objector actually hold?
That turns a stalemate into arithmetic. It does not make the disagreement less painful, and it does not mean a sale is the right outcome for any particular family. It means the belief that one relative can hold the property indefinitely may not be true, and the people living with that belief often do not know it.
This is a published Ohio decision summarized here, not legal advice. Whether these thresholds are met in any estate is a question for a probate attorney in that state.
If you are an heir, executor or co-owner of an inherited house: Journey Into Selling Probate Property — A Guide for Families and Heirs ($29) walks you through what happens, in what order, and what questions to ask before anyone signs anything.
Working an estate sale where one heir says no? EPCAS, The Probate Lab’s probate training for real estate agents, covers who has authority to sell and how to keep the family conversation moving. Not sure where you stand? Take the free probate quiz.
Leave a Reply