I cannot pay my property taxes and they are going to put a lean on my home. It is all paid for with no mortgage. Can they take my home away from me if I pay my taxes after the lean is on it. I am out of work.

[QUOTE=pattylea;3368579]I cannot pay my property taxes and they are going to put a lean on my home. It is all paid for with no mortgage. Can they take my home away from me if I pay my taxes after the lean is on it. I am out of work.[Please give me an answer I am very worried about this

A lien (not lean) means that the person with the Judgment against you gets paid right off the top if/when the property is sold. You pay what you owe, the lien is satisfied and removed.

Taxes are often automatic iiens and no lawsuit/judgment is required.

If taxes are unpaid a lien is often automatic. If the taxes remain unpaid for a period (dictated by local laws) the county can put the home up for auction and sell it.

Where you live makes a difference, normally after the lien, they wait a certain amount of time and then sell the lien. In a few US states, the person who buys the lien can foreclose at once or even gets a tax deed the day of the sale.

In other places, the person who buys the tax lien has to wait for one year to force ownership of property, it is done though tax certificates, not really a foreclosure.
But you will have to pay the amount of tax, and if sold, the amount it sold for, often much higher than the tax amount plus interest, ( normal interest average is about 6 percent right now)

For example, I bought a property a few years ago,for taxes, the taxes were about 3000, I paid 10,000 at auction since the property was worth maybe 60,000 or so,
After about 5 months the owners had to pay me 10,000 plus the interest.
Had they not done that, in about 7 more months I turn the tax certificate in for a tax deed and then evict the people on the property.

All 3 answers are correct but I think Chuck gives a deeper answers, depends on where you are. I am on a HOA board and we lien owners who do not pay their dues. At the end of each year we have a property auction. All of these homes have not paid their taxes either so I an a bit unclear who started the auction, us or the county. The county gets theirs first over our dues.

I can afford to be here enjoying China over those tax sales,

Consider it, at the worst, you make 6 percent on your money investment.

At the best you turn a 1000 to 10,000 dollar investment and normally make 2 to 5 times your investment in one year.

My best was one I bought for 300 hundred dollars and sold for over 20,000 dollars.