How Does Tax Foreclosure Work In NORTH Carolina?

[Ibrahim Hughes]

Hi all. I was just checking in to some land owned by my deceased grandmother and see that a 2013 tax Bill has not been paid. Although 2014 and 2015 were paid (in New Jersey the oldest tax liens have to be paid off first before new tax bill liens can be redeemed). 

From my basic research, it appears that North Carolina does not sell tax liens to third parties. Instead a lien is placed on the property and if it isn't paid, a foreclosure is done and then the property is put up for public auction. What I'm not clear on, assuming my basic research and Analysis above was correct, are the timeframes involved in the foreclosure and public auction.

How long does it take for someone to stop paying taxes and for a foreclosure to commence? Once the Foreclosure is initiated, how long does it take to go to auction? And it looks like once a property owner loses their property at auction and the sale has been confirmed, there is no Redemption period Available for the property owner to get their property back. Is my analysis correct?

[TJ Peterkin]

For North Carolina, they fight extremely hard for the owner to to keep their properties and give them multiple chances. It varies for county. But NC doesn't do tax liens, however, the process is simple but everlasting. The property you seek, check to see if the owner is paying taxes, if they aren't go to the tax office and inform them you're interested. They will then (if they haven't already) start advertising on the property, sending notices to the owner with address on file,they'll send it to family members informing them too. This is a 60 day process. Thereafter they inform the Sheriff's department that's a 30-90
Process, then it'll go into foreclosure, then courthouse auction. - so the process takes around 6 months. It's easier to reach the owner, inform them you want the property, do a quitclaim, pay the seller - and you own the property.