Redemption in Alabama

[Harry Williams]

Hi, On a Tax Deed property purchased from State of Alabama, if I  want the previous owner to redeem do I need to file Ejection Lawsuit prior to his redemption? ?

If yes, then within what time frame??

Thanks... 

[Denise Evans]

@Harry Williams and @John Underwood, if it is obvious people will eventually redeem and I will never get the property, I send a strongly worded letter by regular and certified mail telling them I have the tax sale rights including the right to possession. This letter is the required written notice before the ejectment lawsuit against them, to either vacate the property voluntarily or sign a lease with me. That usually gets them moving.

If it does not work, then if you have a tax certificate you must wait six months and file the ejectment lawsuit.  If they are motivated at that time to redeem, they will also have to pay your legal fees for the ejectment.

If you have a tax deed, you can just give some sort of deadline in the letter and file ejectment after the deadline expires. You do not have to wait six months after written notice. Again, if they redeem, they must pay the legal fees.

Ejectment is not required. It is a good idea to:

• Spur them into action to redeem; and/or
• Legally gain official possession of the property in case there might ever be some dispute about whether you were physically in exclusive and continuous possession. The  inability to show exclusive and continuous possession means judicial redemption rights could hang on longer than anticipated, void tax sales could be set aside longer than anticipated, and if it has been three years since the tax deed without exclusive and continuous possession for SOME period of time towards the end, then the taxpayer might be able to set aside the entire tax sale and pay the investor nothing at all.  An ejectment order cures all of that, and says that, as a matter of law, you are in exclusive and continuous posssession, no matter what is happening in the real world with physical possession.