You inherited a house with your siblings, and one won't sell.

The answer changes who has the say. Look at two things: whether a probate case is open with letters of office issued, and whose names are on the title today.

If the estate is open. The executor or administrator holds the authority. In independent administration, which Illinois courts grant unless the will forbids it or an interested person objects, the representative can sell the estate's real estate without a court order and without each heir signing. There's an exception: a house the will leaves to specific people can't be sold without those people's written consent. An heir who objects has remedies in the probate court. Any interested person can ask the court for a hearing on a matter in the estate, and can petition to end independent administration, which puts the sale under the court's supervision.

If the house has passed to you. Once the house is deeded or distributed to the siblings, or passed to them outside probate, they own it together, usually as tenants in common with a share each. From then on there is no representative. A sale of the whole house needs every owner to sign the contract and the deed.

If you aren't sure which one you're in, the estate's lawyer or a title company can tell you from the court file and the recorded documents. Our page on how to sell an inherited house in Illinois covers letters of office and the representative's authority.

No co-owner can sell the whole house over the others' objection or sign for anyone else. A buyer who wants clear title to the house needs all of you.

What any one co-owner can do is go to court. Illinois law says that when land is held in joint tenancy or tenancy in common, any one or more of the people with an interest in it may compel a partition by filing a verified complaint in the circuit court of the county where the property is. The sibling who wants to keep the house can't simply refuse forever, and the sibling who wants to sell can't simply force a sale tomorrow. Each has leverage, and each has something to lose in court costs and time.

Meanwhile the house costs money. Keep a record of who pays the taxes, insurance, utilities, and repairs. If the dispute reaches a court, contributions to those expenses are among the things the heirs property statute tells a judge to consider.

• One buys the others out. Agree on a value, usually from an appraisal everyone accepts, and the sibling who wants the house pays the others for their shares. A lawyer or title company handles the deed.
• Everyone sells and splits. List it or sell it directly, pay what's owed, and divide the rest by each person's share.
• A written agreement to wait. One sibling lives there or rents it for a set period, with who pays what and a sale date in writing.
• Mediation. A neutral mediator works with all of you, with or without lawyers in the room. Many disagreements here are about fairness and memory more than money, and a mediator is built for that.

We don't take a side in any of these. The cheapest outcome for the family is almost always one you agree on yourselves.

In a partition case the court first determines who owns what share. Then it decides whether the property can be physically divided among the owners without manifest prejudice to them. Farmland sometimes can be. A single house usually can't, and when the court finds it can't, it orders a sale.

Under the general partition statute, that sale is a public sale on terms the court directs. The court fixes a value for the property, and a sale can't be approved for less than two-thirds of that valuation. The statute provides for a disinterested commissioner to report to the court on whether the property can be divided, and the court apportions the costs of the case among the owners, including a reasonable fee for the plaintiff's attorney, unless a defendant raises a good and substantial defense.

A court-ordered sale takes the decision out of everyone's hands. That's the reason to treat it as the last option, not the first.

Illinois adopted the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act for cases like this. It applies when the property is held in tenancy in common, there's no written agreement among all the co-owners about partition, at least one co-owner got title from a relative, and relatives hold or make up at least 20 percent of the ownership in one of the ways the Act lists. The court decides whether the property qualifies, and if it does, the case must follow this Act unless all the co-owners agree otherwise in writing.

The court sets the value. Unless the co-owners agree on a value, the court orders an appraisal by a disinterested licensed appraiser, the parties get notice of it and a chance to object, and the court determines fair market value after a hearing.

The buyout right. If a co-owner asked for the property to be sold, the other co-owners get the right to buy the interests of those who asked, at the court's value times each seller's fractional share. They have 45 days after the notice to elect, and the court then sets a payment date at least 60 days out. A sibling who files for a sale should expect that the others may buy them out at the court's number.

If there's no buyout. The court orders a division in kind unless that would cause manifest prejudice to the co-owners as a group, weighing factors the Act lists, including how long the family has owned the property, a co-owner's sentimental attachment, and who has paid the taxes and upkeep. If it orders a sale, the sale must be an open-market sale through a licensed real estate broker, at a price no lower than the court's value, unless the court finds sealed bids or an auction would be better for the co-owners as a group.

We can buy an inherited house only when everyone with the authority to sell signs: the estate's representative while the estate is open, or every co-owner once the house is in your names. If one of you won't sign, we can't buy the house, and a written offer from us doesn't change that.

What an offer can do is give a family one real number. Siblings often disagree about what the house is worth as it stands, full of contents and needing work. A written as-is offer, next to an appraisal or an agent's opinion, lets everyone compare selling now, listing after repairs, and a buyout.

A cash offer is usually below what the house would bring repaired and listed. If the sibling who wants to keep the house can buy the others out at a fair value, that may be the better result for everyone. Have your own lawyer look at any offer or agreement before you sign, and if you and your siblings have different interests, you each need your own.