Someone has begun development on a property that I have the tax deed on

[Brandon Robertson]

I purchased a tax certificate from Alabama a few years ago and I now have the tax deed dated a month ago. I just picked up the tax deed yesterday and am filing it today. 

Someone started bushhogging and surveying two parcels beside each other a couple of days ago (one of them being the one I have the tax deed for). After being surprised by that activity I looked into the records for properties around my parcel and found that years ago a developer had originally bought the two parcels in one sale. For whatever reason the developer paid the taxes on one of the parcels but didn't pay taxes on the other so it went to tax sale. My guess is after they bought the parcels they only had one of them assessed in their name, but I'm new to this and am not sure.

I haven't spoken with the developer yet. I didn't even realize they had originally purchased the parcel I have the tax deed to until the heavy equipment showed up which made me look closer at deeds for sales in the area and discovered my parcel listed on the other property's deed.

This is my first tax certificate/tax deed so I'm not sure what comes next. I don't want to have an adversarial interaction with the developer or to try and keep the property for myself. All I'm looking for is return on my investment. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.