A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to clarify that commissioners may consider ownership of adjoining parcels in dividing land for in‑kind partitions of real property.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 46‑10 reads as rewritten:
"§ 46‑10.  Commissioners to meet and make partition; equalizing shares.
(a)	The commissioners, who shall be summoned by the sheriff, must meet on the premises and, subject to the provisions of subsection (b) of this section, partition the same among the tenants in common, or joint tenants, according to their respective rights and interests therein, by dividing the land into shares which reflect the rights and interests of the tenants in common or joint tenants based upon the value of the tract or tracts irrespective of the quantity of land involved in the partition proceeding. For this purpose the commissioners are empowered to subdivide the more valuable tracts as they may deem best, and to charge the more valuable tracts with such sums of money as they may think necessary, to be paid to the tenants of tracts of inferior value, in order to make an equitable partition.
(b)	A tenant in common or joint tenant with ownership of lands not subject to partition that adjoin the tract or tracts subject to partition may elect to have an adjoining share or shares allotted to them. The election may be made in the petition for partition, in any pleading filed in response to the petition for partition, or by filing an election at any time prior to the appointment of commissioners. If the commissioners determine that an allotment of an adjoining share would be inequitable or not feasible, then the commissioners shall provide the basis for that determination in the report filed pursuant to G.S. 46‑17. If a party files an election separate from the petition for partition or a responsive pleading to the petition for partition, then that election or responsive pleading shall be served upon the other parties as any other responsive pleading."
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies to petitions filed on or after that date.