Abandoned Properties Research

[Douglas Ward]

We located an abandoned property.  It had a phone number on the notice of abandonment.  We called to find that it was a bank, but they had no record of the house and or notice.  We tried the courthouse, records and tax accessors office, and found the recorded property, names of owners and addresses along with information about medical liens having been put on the property.  We also found that the husband and wife had filed for and received a divorce.  We tracked the husband down to the address given, but found that the man, was in fact not the husband, but a confused sole by the same name that did not know why he was receiving notices of past due bills etc.  He was relieved to find out what we knew, but was no help to us.  We tracked the wife down to the address given, but found renters living in this house who had no knowledge of the wife.  The taxes, by the way, were current and the wife was noted as having paid these taxes.  We started knocking on neighbor's doors and discovered the wife had died two years prior from cancer.  The question is, does, anyone have any idea where we go from here?  There is a notice of sale listed with the recorder's office, but it has not been filed yet.  We are hoping to locate the owners with the thought that we can secure the property for the monies owed, but have just a few days to accomplish this before the notice of sale is filed.

[Account Closed]

Did you read the actual divorce decree?  If not recorded, it's at the courts. Who got the house?  If it was the wife, there is a probate problem.  You can't buy from a deceased person.  You can't even work with the lender to pay it off without authorization from the borrower, or in this case a representative of her estate.  If the husband is still alive, and/or if he and the wife still own the house as joint tenants you might have someone to work with.