Hi,

Here's my question. I bought a property 6 years ago that had 3 little houses on it. My agent just informed me that one of the houses just sold at a tax sale due to unpaid taxes.

The previous owner had been getting notices for these taxes and he threw them away because (in his mind) he had sold that property to me. In actuality, the property we all thought was one piece of land... was actually two pieces of land. The agent, the previous owner, and myself all thought I was buying all three houses on one piece of land.

Who's at fault?

I think I have the right to sue the title company for not drawing it up and including both pieces.

To complicate things, I sold the property before all this happened and now the new owner wants me to pay for the lost property /house... ($35,000.00)

What Do I do? I don't feel it was in any way my fault.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ranman

Hi,

Here's my question. I bought a property 6 years ago that had 3 little houses on it. My agent just informed me that one of the houses just sold at a tax sale due to unpaid taxes.

The previous owner had been getting notices for these taxes and he threw them away because (in his mind) he had sold that property to me. In actuality, the property we all thought was one piece of land.......was actually two pieces of land. The agent, the previous owner, and myself all thought I was buying all three houses on one piece of land.

Who's at fault?

I think I have the right to sue the title company for not drawing it up and including both pieces.

To complicate things, I sold the property before all this happened and now the new owner wants me to pay for the lost property /house...($35,000.00)

What Do I do? I don't feel it was in any way my fault.

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I don't quite understand this - your Attorney (in theory) closed on this property for you and he/she didn't notice that what you thought you were buying and what you actually were buying didn't match up?

If you give the title company an address (1 Main St) and don't specifically say "also 2 Main St" they only search out the property you gave them. They don't look around and see what else might be for sale. I see no fault on the part of the title company UNLESS they were given one address or the address and dimensions of one parcel and, in fact, didn't "cover" the entire parcel.

I do see a problem with the Attorneys on both sides and very possibly the realtor.

Compare your various documents - someone should have noticed this long before now.

I don't get it.

You mean that the person you bought this property from, didn't really own the third house or the property it sits on?

I would say the biggest problem seems to be that several parties have sold and purchased property without being legally represented by an attorney.

If any of you had, that is who would be liable for these problems.

Without legal representation, you are all at risk in some way.

I suggest you find a good real estate attorney now, but you should have had one to begin with.

I agree with the previous posters (sorry, have to spread the rep.)

One additional suggestion I have, that is probably very time sensitive, that may give everyone involved the time necessary to sort out the mess... typically there's a "redemption period" with tax sales. A period - even after the sale - that the person who owed the taxes can still go back and pay them and get the property back.

There are some serious legal issues from the attoreny, For example all taxes have to be paid at closing, so to close a review of all taxes would have had to be done.?

Yes, I do hope you bought title insurance, this one will end up in court.

If you sold property you did not own, yes they may have a good case against you. It may be a harder case if you agreed to and signed the paper work when you bought the house