Deceased tax lien sale

[Shelley Marko]

My friend has passed away and has no mortgage on property and only owes $1200 in taxes for 3 years deliquent The sheriff delivered the paperwork to my house as he used to live next door and he has no heirs. I wanted to see if I could stop the tax lien sale by simply paying the taxes and taking possession of the property as squatters rights. When you openly inhabit the dwelling and pay the taxes , I think that's what its called ? Would that in any way stop the tax lien sale from occuring or is there anyway to acquire this property. Is pretty run down and he only paid like $39k for it but fixed up could be pretty nice. I'm thinking probably not but there will be a surplus when it goes to bidding that I don't know where that would go LOL Thanks