Co-Owned Forest in Latvia: Right of First Refusal and Selling an Inherited Share

When a forest belongs to more than one owner

"A year ago, after my mother's death, I inherited a forest. It's about 12 ha, and there's a second owner. The forest isn't divided. I wanted to sell it, but the other party doesn't want to." That is a real question a reader put to a Latvian legal portal's lawyer in 2024 — and it's a typical scenario, not an exception. In Latvia, forest land routinely passes to several children at once, and if nobody takes on the formal work of dividing it, it stays in co-ownership indefinitely — sometimes for one generation, sometimes for several.

Co-ownership is not "half yours, half mine, everyone does as they please." It's a legal status with specific rules that limit what one co-owner can do without the others' consent — and what a co-owner can do even against the others' wishes.

Key takeaways

- Dealing with the co-owned object as a whole (the whole forest, or the whole harvest lot) requires the consent of all co-owners.

- A co-owner may sell their own undivided share at any time — but must first offer the other co-owners the right of first refusal.

- The holder of that right has two months to respond; silence means the right is lost.

- If the right of first refusal is ignored, the co-owner has a redemption right — one year to "step into the buyer's shoes" in a deal that has already closed.

- These rights pass down through inheritance, so the issue doesn't disappear across generations — it compounds.

What co-ownership actually means in law

Article 1067, first paragraph, of Latvia's Civil Law defines co-ownership as ownership of one and the same undivided thing held by several persons not in real, physical shares, but only in undivided (ideal) shares — meaning only the content of the right is divided, not the thing itself. In plain terms: you don't own a specific 6 of 12 hectares with defined boundaries — you own a ½ undivided share of the whole 12-hectare tract.

That structure has a direct practical consequence. Dealing with the co-owned object — selling the whole forest, mortgaging it, releasing a harvest lot for felling — requires the agreed will of all co-owners. In practice that means 100% agreement, not a majority vote. If there are three co-owners and two want to sell but one doesn't, the sale of the whole property doesn't go through until the third agrees, or until the co-ownership is ended some other way.

The one thing a co-owner can decide alone, in practice, is the fate of their own undivided share.

Right of first refusal: why you can't just sell your share to a stranger

Here's the logic many heirs miss: you may sell your own undivided share at any time, even without the other co-owners' consent — but not to just any buyer straight away. Article 1073 and Articles 2060–2063 of the Civil Law set the general rules for the right of first refusal that co-owners hold by operation of law whenever another co-owner disposes of their undivided share to someone who is not a co-owner.

The mechanics: once a purchase agreement with an outside buyer is signed, the seller must offer the other co-owners the chance to exercise their right of first refusal on the same terms offered to the new buyer — the same price, the same payment terms. The holder of that right has two months to tell the seller whether they will use it. No answer within that window, and the right is lost.

To avoid a dispute over whether the offer was ever actually made, a sworn notary interviewed by the Latvian legal portal recommends making the offer in writing and delivering it against signature, or sending it through a sworn notary — who can then issue a certificate of delivery that serves as proof if a dispute arises later.

What happens if the right of first refusal is ignored

If the seller sells their share to a third party without offering the right of first refusal, the consequences aren't the same for everyone involved.

The holder of the right can pursue the seller, seeking damages or a ruling that the sale is void. Going after the new buyer is only possible in two situations: if it can be proven the buyer acted in bad faith (knew about someone else's right of first refusal but deliberately said nothing), or if the right of first refusal had been registered in the Land Register.

On top of that, a co-owner whose right was bypassed through no fault of their own holds a redemption right — the right to "step into" the buyer's position in a deal that has already closed, displacing the new acquirer. That right can be exercised within one year of the transaction.

These rights pass through inheritance

Article 702 of the Civil Law provides that the right of first refusal and the redemption right can be inherited — they pass to the heir already at the moment of the deceased's death, because accepting an inheritance has retroactive effect. In practice: if a father was one of two co-owners and died, his children (the heirs) automatically acquire the father's right of first refusal against the other original co-owner — even before the inheritance case is formally closed with a notary.

That explains why co-ownership disputes over Latvian forest land tend to get more complicated over time, not less. Two brothers who jointly inherit their father's forest can, a generation later, turn into five or ten co-owners, as each brother's share passes on to his own children. The more holders of undivided shares there are, the harder it is to reach 100% agreement to sell the whole property — and the more people you have to notify even to sell just one share.

How to actually sell a co-owned forest or harvest lot

Mežabirža, a forest-industry marketplace that regularly fields questions from forest co-owners, distinguishes two scenarios.

If you're planning to sell a harvest lot (the right to fell standing timber, without disposing of the land itself), the written consent of all co-owners to the sale and to how proceeds get split is enough — it can be a clause in the harvest-lot sale contract, signed by every co-owner.

If you're planning to sell the forest land itself, consent has to be expressed in the transaction documents — the notarized registration application, the purchase agreement, or a power of attorney. If one co-owner has been given power of attorney by the rest, they can act alone in the deal.

A practical way to defuse disputes: many forest co-owners choose to sell a harvest lot or the land itself through a public auction (an online forest-marketplace platform, for instance) rather than negotiating privately with one buyer. The reason is simple — in an open auction, every co-owner can verify the deal amount and the buyer's identity, which removes the suspicion that one co-owner struck a quiet side deal with the buyer at the others' expense.

How the sale proceeds get paid out is also up to the parties: the money can go to a single co-owner's account, or be split among everyone in proportion to their undivided shares — both are fine as long as every party has agreed to it.

Making your share easier to sell

Selling an undivided share to a stranger is, in practice, harder than selling a real, bounded parcel of land — the buyer only gets an abstract right to a share of the whole, not a concrete piece of land they can walk and mark on a map.

The fix Latvian legal advisers recommend is a shared-use agreement among the co-owners (under Article 1070 of the Civil Law). Without ending the co-ownership itself, such an agreement lets co-owners settle which part of the shared property goes to each owner's separate use — say, which stretch of forest belongs to one sibling, which to the other, while access roads stay in common use. It's worth attaching a graphic annex to the agreement — a property plan marking out the use boundaries.

For the agreement to bind third parties too (including a future buyer), it has to be registered in the Land Register. In practice, an undivided share sells for more, and finds a buyer more easily, when the co-owners have already agreed on shared-use terms — the buyer then knows they're getting not just an abstract share, but a concrete right to use a specific piece of forest.

The alternative: physical division

If the co-owners want to end their mutual dependence entirely, the forest can be split into real, physical shares — turning one co-owned cadastre into several independent parcels, each with its own owner and no ties to the rest.

The process involves an application to the local municipality, drawing up boundary plans for each new parcel, registering the changes with the State Land Service, and finally recording the split in the Land Register. It takes time and surveyor's fees, but it settles the matter for good — after the split, each former co-owner can deal with their own parcel independently, without ever having to think about a right of first refusal again.

What this means for a buyer evaluating a cadastre

Before making an offer on a specific cadastre, check the Land Register extract — how many owners are registered, and in what share split. Our earlier post on why a calculator's valuation diverges from the sale price already flagged undivided co-ownership as one of five factors that can shave 5–15% off a deal — and the reason is exactly the legal mechanics described here: the deal needs every owner's consent, which stretches out the time to close and creates the risk that one of them blocks it.

One more warning sign: if the inheritance case at a notary hasn't been formally closed yet — the cadastre is still registered to the deceased — no deal is possible until the heirs formalize their rights, no matter how long they've already been acting as owners in practice.

FAQ

Can a co-owner sell their share without the others' consent?

Yes — an undivided share can be sold without the other co-owners' consent, but they must first be offered the right of first refusal. Consent from all co-owners is only required to sell the whole property or the whole harvest lot, not a single share.

How much time does a co-owner have to decide on the right of first refusal?

Two months, for immovable property. If there's no answer within that window, the right of first refusal is lost, and the seller can close the deal with the original buyer.

Can the holder of the right of first refusal demand a lower price than the outside buyer paid?

No. The right of first refusal doesn't grant any advantage on price or other terms — whoever holds it has to match the terms offered to the new buyer.

What happens if the seller simply doesn't disclose the sale?

The holder of the right of first refusal can sue the seller for damages or to have the sale declared void, and can use the redemption right within a year to step into the buyer's position — if it can be shown the deal went through without the offer being made.

Can co-ownership be ended by force if one co-owner won't agree to anything?

If the co-owners can't reach a voluntary agreement — not on a sale, not on a shared-use agreement, not on a physical division — any co-owner can go to court to have the co-ownership terminated. That's a last resort, and the specific procedure depends on the individual case, so legal advice is worth getting before going down that road.

Related articles

• Why calculator valuation isn't the same as sale price
• 10 pitfalls when buying forest in Latvia

Sources

• Latvia's Civil Law (Civillikums), likumi.lv — Articles 1067, 1070, 1073, 702, and 2060–2063 (co-ownership, shared use, right of first refusal and redemption right, inheritance).
• LV portāls — "Pirmpirkuma tiesības – kad tās jāpiedāvā?" (Laura Studente, 17.05.2017).
• LV portāls, e-consultation — "Mantotu kopīpašuma domājamo daļu pārdošana" (lawyer Pauls Vasks, 30.09.2024).
• LV portāls, e-consultation — "Kādi ir šķēršļi un apgrūtinājumi kopīpašumā" (lawyer Olga Lauva, 19.09.2025).
• Mežabirža — "Meža kopīpašums. Kā pārdot, ja mežs nepieder man vienam?" (29.03.2024).

Disclaimer

This article is a general explainer and does not replace legal advice for a specific situation. Co-ownership and inheritance matters are case-by-case; consulting a sworn notary or lawyer before acting is recommended.