Hello r/Legal,

Hope I can find some answers to my questions as I have many. S0 to start off with this is for my partner and his father recently passed away from COVID. My questions are in no way related to COVID but more so the property, his passing and that ownership of the property and other things. All of this is in the United States in the state of Texas

1. Starting with He recently passed away (may he rest in peace) from COVID and it was unexpected so there was no will. The property he lived on with his wife was under his name, her name and 2 brothers. The brothers want nothing to do with the property BUT they never changed the names or removed them from the property so I would think wife owns it? What would have to be done for that to reflect her name or for them to pass it to my partner? In other words remove brothers and keep wife and my partner.

2. When we looked at the property (my partner and I) we noticed that it should be 5 acers but was only 4 and then 1 so we dug into it and come to find out that one of my partners sisters ex-boyfriends decided he wanted to add his name so he managed to do that. There apparently was no signed paperwork and no legal documentation to add him and separate the land (from 5 acers to 4 acers and 1 acer) so I think this is on the county that ROYALLY messed up. The 4 acers were left alone and the 1 acer where he added himself there is no documentation of how that happened. There was no site survey no nothing he just got it done (his is discharged military if that could have influenced anything).

3. On top of all of that there is back taxes on everything from back 7 years which has become a hefty fee but that's the least of my concerns. Question is how can or would the county allow the separation of the property when it has back taxes? Wouldn't it be considered a sell off of the 1 acers and would need lots of documentation?

4. As mentioned above the the 2 brothers on the property with my partners parents don't want anything to do with the land. According to my partner one of the brothers sold his share to his sister my partners aunt who put a trailer there and was supposed to pay taxes but has never. When confronted she refused to pay and said she would rather sell her part. Problem here is there are no legal documents or recites that show she bought the land or anything that any of them have. All of this was word of mouth and I guess when Dad died so did all the agreements? honestly I don't want my partner to deal with her since she did some VERY shady things to her own father and practically stole his home (long story where Father couldn't own home to get medicaid/medicare help other kids didn't want to help she did so Grandfather passed property to her and she evicted him for her daughters and he lives in assisted living now).

Asking if I should do anything or should we just let the land got into tax lien and be sold? Partner doesn't want to since Mom will be out of house. We plan to build there and move in to help mom and reduce our expenses. I also have legal assistance I can seek but would it even be worth it? Is there anything illegal about it? Or any assistance I can get through legal council?

TLDR: Property behind on taxes by 7 years ; 5 acers were separated to 4 original owners, 1 acer added ex-boyfriend and sister with back taxes and no legal documents, aunt lives on land but doesn't want to contribute and there is no paperwork that shows she bought land. Who would own land now? Remove ex-boyfriend and re-join the 5 acers?