All Forum Posts by: Denise Evans

Asia, are you asking ME if I know attorneys? You've dealt with a lot of them yourself. Do you not recommend any of them?

I posted a video that explains about Alabama redemption time periods. Not as clear cut as 3 years after tax deed. Watch the video.  I would not loan hard money against a tax deed, much less borrow money for an expensive rehab. There are about a dozen different ways things can go bad. The investor can probably control most of them, but the lender has no such close-quarters notice and ability to respond.

Get quitclaim deeds from the owner, or as many of the heirs as you can if there are heirs. That is the best way to protect yourself. Even if you don't get from all of the heirs, that at least makes you a co-owner and bootstraps into a lot of other rights and protections.

@Tyson Begly, To quote my own book on tax sales:

Rule Two assumes that if it looks like garbage, it is abandoned garbage. Put more eloquently, the Alabama Supreme Court said, “Though ordinarily there exists a presumption that one does not intend to abandon his property, this presumption is not attendant where the article claimed to have been abandoned is generally considered valueless.”[1] Photographic evidence that the contents of a tax sale property were all damaged, heavily soiled, or not worth the cost to haul to the dump, would seem to indicate “valueless” abandoned property. In that case, the investor would be protected if it helped the personal property on its trip to the landfill.

[1] Milford v. Tennessee River Pulp & Paper Co., 355 So.2d 687, 689 (Ala. 1978)

Nobody has to take any action. Under the law, title to real estate MUST be in someone at all times. We might not know what that someone is, but title rests there. It does not matter if probate was opened or any notices sent out or anything similar.

I understand your reasoning, but it is a constitutional due process issue that you cannot take someone's property away from them without due process of law, which includes notice. Also, the person must have an opportunity to appear in court and dispute the taking. While we basically think of those certified mail notices as just something to prove the taxpayer got the delinquent notice, it is more than that. It is a notice to appear in court and show cause why the property should not be auctioned. It is probate court, but it's still a court.  The certified letter is a summons, just like in a regular lawsuit. If it was sent to the wrong person, then that person lost their rights without the opportunity to argue.

Yes, you would think it is the county's responsibility to keep up with stuff, but it is not practical. So, it rests on the investors. Sorry.

@Tyson Begly  Tricky question. If you have a quiet title order AND properly served everybody you could find AND the guardian ad litem did their job properly, then you are probably safe. On the other hand, a "served by publication" heir could argue the guardian ad litem did not do their job well, the heir should not be foreclosed from claiming the tax sale was void, and they ALWAYS have 3 years after the tax deed date to assert their rights and cannot lose them simply because of a GAL who did not assert the correct defenses on behalf of the unknown or unfound heirs.

In every county except Jefferson County, if the assessed owner's name was in the pre-auction advertising, and that was the name called off at auction, but that person died before the auction, then the tax sale is void. Any heirs can void out the the tax sale but must pay the investor for taxes and interest. They do not have to pay for improvements, and the investor is not entitled to possession. Jefferson County has a special statute passed in the late 1930's that protects it, and any other county with a population over 500,000. Originally it was 100,000, but amended in the 1980s. Today, that is still only Jefferson County, although Madison County is gaining on them.

If you take the risk and take possession of the property, and hold possession for 3 years after the tax deed date (6 years after the auction in your case) then your "short statute" adverse possession of 3 years will defeat any heir's claims the tax sale was void. The statute of limitations will have expired on their rights to get the property back.

@Dan Portka @Brandon S. First, there's not enough money in the budget to hire all the deputies they need to serve these things and Second, even for the ones they have money to hire, they can't find people to hire. Everybody has the same problem. Everybody in law enforcement has the same  problem as the rest of us, in spades. You can complain, but it won't do you any good.  EVEN IF they could find qualified candidates to hire, do you think the people of Jefferson County are going to vote to increase their ad valorem taxes so the Sheriff's department can hire more deputies to serve more eviction notices for so-called rich investors? It won't happen.  Maybe if there were a crime spree terrorizing the entire county, but I'm not even sure about that.

The bottom line, in business and in government is, "where is the money going to come from?"

Of course, one answer is to charge a very stout fee for each turnout order executed. Perhaps when you call, you can tell the department that you, and other investors, would not be opposed to THAT solution. It would be a lot cheaper than the rent you are losing right now.  I find that complaining usually falls on more receptive ears when a possible solution is also offered.

There is no way. I'm sorry. Usually I can come up with creative solutions for people's challenges, but there is just no way around this particular one.

@Christine Garnier, Tax deeds and tax certificates from ADOR are completely different from tax liens under the newer system.  You seem to be smashing both of them together. All the rules are different.

For tax liens, you must foreclose. You never pay the taxes, you just keep exercising your right of first refusal to buy subsequent year's tax liens, until you are ready to foreclose. When you foreclose, the court awards title to you, enters a quiet title order, and orders the Clerk of the court to issue a deed to you. You have perfect, insurable, title at that point. Unless someone with redemption rights redeems during the lawsuit, in which case you get your redemption money and your tax liens are cancelled.

With tax certificate/tax deed sales under the older system, you pay the taxes each year. After you have a tax deed, you can quiet title. The minimum time period after the tax deed, that you can quiet title, is hotly debated among attorneys, investors, and judges. There is NO clear decision from an appellate court on this subject.  The tax sale wipes out all the liens, but those lienholders have redemption rights. If you have a tax certificate or tax deed and then also obtain a quitclaim deed from the former owner, then title is resurrected in the name of the owner, all the liens re-attach, and then title moves to you, in a split second.  If you simply hold onto the property for ten years after the tax deed date, and maintain possession (usually by renting it out) then you are into old fashioned "color of title adverse possession" which is 10 years. 

If you own a tax deed, you can quitclaim it to anybody, including another entity owned by you. If you own a tax lien, it can be ASSIGNED to anybody, including another entity owned by you.

One "outside the box" play is to track down former owners, pay nominal amounts for a quitclaim deed, and then redeem. That is allowed because you will then have the former owner's redemption rights. Just make sure there are no liens against the property, because they will re-attach upon redemption.

The Alabama Abandoned Motor Vehicle Act applies only if  you are the owner of the property, which means you must have a tax deed.  How long until you have one?

Your only other avenue is to sue for ejectment, get an ejectment order, and when the vehicles have not been removed, have them towed off. Can you find the owners to serve ejectment papers on them? Ejectment is not a cause of action that is capable of service by publication, so if you can't find the owners, I'm not sure what you can do. Call me, and let's brainstorm.