All Forum Posts by: John Byrley

Thanks to all for the replies.  More specifics - the main issue is failure to include the lien holder in the foreclosure suit (the State of Maryland was named, but not the MD Dept of Health).  A secondary issue is related to the unknown heirs - no guardian ad litem was appointed (though I'm not sure how commonly that's required in Maryland as opposed to Florida for example), and no professional  heir search service was utilized.  Someone I spoke to today mentioned the possibility of reopening the foreclosure to include the MDH and possibly resolving the unknown heirs issue - but from my understand that's rather difficult to get done, but if possible it might be the most straightforward thing to do.  The problem of course is that we already paid off the county so I'm not sure what would prevent MDH from simply redeeming the lien and then we're in the same position.  Anyway, my realtor did text me earlier and said the buyers found an insurer who will do it - they just have to "clear it with the State" - so we'll see.  

In March of this year, we acquired title to a property in St. Mary's county, Maryland, through a tax lien foreclosure, paying about $40K.  The prior owner, a mentally-challenged man, had died in 2018 while in long term care.  Maryland Dept of Health placed a lien on the property in 2018 for the costs of the care, totaling about $90K.  The property had sat vacant and neglected since then, rapidly deteriorating and becoming an eyesore to the neighborhood.   During the foreclosure process, we were not able to locate any heirs to serve, despite contacting several friends of the deceased, doing an estate search, obituary search, Radaris search, etc.  We were told by several people that the decedent had no heirs.  (We did not use a professional heir search service).  We did serve the State of Maryland.  The State did not respond to the foreclosure complaint.   The judge ordered foreclosure and we obtained the deed from the county.  We are now trying to sell the property.  We had one offer for $100K but that fell through due to refusal of the title company to insure title.  We are searching for a title company in Maryland who would be willing to insure a title like this.  As an alternative, we are considering Tax Title Services or a Quite Title if necessary.  Any advice or guidance anyone would give would be much appreciated.