Clearing titles on heir property involved in flood buyouts in Vicksburg and Warren County could be handled for free, depending on participation in a budding effort by the state’s top nonprofit legal advocacy group.

Spurred by the Mississippi River’s historic rise in May, the Mississippi Center for Justice will offer free legal work for anyone living in a home that was damaged by the flood and has ownership muddled by out-of-date land records, said Frank Farmer, a lawyer with the organization’s Jackson office.

“Vicksburg is where we’re starting because of the flood,” Farmer said, adding the city’s buyout plan was an “impetus” for offering services in the area and might expand beyond flooded properties and into general. “The mayor’s office has been quite helpful in spreading the word.”

Clearing a property title held by multiple heirs when new deeds are not re-recorded can take years and stretch across several states. Costs can total $10,000 or more, depending on highly variable hourly rates charged by attorneys.

The legal staff at a forum on Sept. 1 said clearing titles of flood-wracked properties was likely to fall to volunteer agencies instead of the city. No firm number of potential heir property cases was identified.

“We’ve had people with both (MCJ) and with Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association offer us pro bono legal work clearing up title issues,” Mayor Paul Winfield said when reached Monday. “We just want to make people aware they’re offering it.”

Most of the 35 or so people who attended lived in Kings and Ford subdivisions off North Washington Street where floodwater was deepest inside the city. The river crested May 19 in Vicksburg at 57.1 feet, or 14.1 feet above flood stage.

Funding to buy out flooded homes could come available March 1, depending on renewed allocations from Congress to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The city expects to fund 25 percent of the buyout, with 75 percent coming from FEMA. Eligibility is determined by whether a structure has lost more than 50 percent of its pre-flood value.

So far, 43 of 67 homes assessed by the Buildings and Inspection Department fit the “substantially damaged” category, department director Victor Gray-Lewis said. Overall, he said, the river inundated 145 structures inside the city — 125 in areas along North Washington Street and 20 in the Cedars Circle and Warrenton Place areas off U.S. 61 South.

Outside the city, about 240 structures flooded and three property owners have asked about a buyout program, Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said. No specific buyout plan has been OK’d by Warren County supervisors. About 25 letters were mailed to owners of property deemed to have exceeded the 50 percent damage threshold, Elfer said. Assessments in the county were completed by a mix of permits office staff and contractors hired by FEMA and MEMA.

A second of two meetings between Farmer and city officials is expected Friday. The first was last week, District 2 Supervisor William Banks said. Banks’ district covers both hard-hit neighborhoods.

Countywide, the flood forced evacuations from 1,340 structures — 707 of them primary dwellings. More than 3,200 people were displaced. Homes along and west of rail tracks in the Ford, Kings and Chickasaw areas were flooded up to rooftops.