City Taken Possession of Property - Will Not Allow Owner To Sell

[Rhandell Mitchell]

This evening I had a discussion with a potential seller only to find out that the city had taken possession of his property. He mentioned that last year he tried to sell it but the city would not allow it. 

There was lots of ambiguity in regard to how to get the city to release the property so he could sell it. 

After doing some research I found the most recent transaction was to an Asset Management company but there was no Grantor and no Sale Price in the transaction record. 

With this said, does anyone have experience with this and know how to get this type of thing cleared up so the city will release the hold on the property so that the owner call sell?