Tax lien purchase and improvements on undeveloped land

[Gene Walker]

Hello BP, I just received an email from the state of Alabama that a tax lien I had applied for was available for purchase. The land is a 2.5 acre piece of land that is undeveloped in a rural area. The date of the tax sale to the state was 5/19/2015. My question is if I purchase the tax lien and I need to add a small road way to gain access to the property from a county road would that expense be paid back to me if the owner redeems the property? There is no access to the property from anywhere else by the way. The property has county road frontage but needs a small road added to drive a vehicle on to it.

[Denise Evans]

The expense will not be paid back to you. It is not included within the required redemption charges. The cost of adding the road is completely at your own risk. There is no legal theory at law or in equity that will allow you to be paid for the road. Do not let an attorney tell you otherwise, unless that attorney can cite an Alabama Supreme Court decision regarding a tax sale, that allows that.  That usually makes those "horse back opinion" lawyers back down from rash legal advice.