My mother inherited my grandmothers property when she passed. My mother then gave me the property. Well my grandma had't paid property taxes for 10 years some kind of a waiver she got. Well now they want me to pay them. Do I have to do this? It doesn't seem fair. The state of CA has sent me a demand letter wanting the bill paid in full or else start a foreclosure. She also had a home improvement loan through the county that was not paid in full and they have a lien on the property if I was to sell it. Am I liable for this debt? Thank you for any replies.

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Originally Posted by Lea 56

... Do I have to do this? It doesn't seem fair. ...Am I liable for this debt? ...

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Probably. You might want to have an attorney look at it to be sure, but it appears to have been some sort of a conditional waiver and the conditions weren't fulfilled.

And why do you suppose you, as the property owner wouldn't have to pay back the loan?

Was your grandmother's estate probated?

As a general rule you accept property (buy, gift) with all encumbrances that exist - primarily taxes and liens. Those attach to the property and someone has to pay them. That someone is the owner.

Your grandmother had a tax waiver and no one advised the authorities that circumstances had changed (she died) and cancelled the waiver?

Of course they want you to pay the taxes - that's fraud. I'm surprised no one has been criminally charged (so far).

And, yes, the lien goes with the property. If you sell, the lien gets paid first.

The first things is you need to get the facts. You need to find out what type of waiver your grandmother had and what conditions were required. It is possible the waiver expired when she died and you only own taxes back to that point.

As for the lien, the property should not have been transferred until the lien was satisfied. So I'n not sure how it was transferred to your name. But yes a loan secured by property stays with that property. I'm not sure why you think any of this is not fair.

There's another thread about an estate which was never probated. This question is one of the many things that can happen when no one has Court authority, no one knows the exact situation. If the estate HAD been probated the property tax situation/waiver would have been addressed - at least in my area.