Nosey Neighbors And Tax Property
I bought two tax properties 2 wks ago. I am trying to find owner of one to send letter to. The other one has been a real education. The city said I needed to mow the property, or be charged for it when they mow it. No problem. I mowed the 2-1/2 acres of vacant commercial property. Neighbors (residents in the area) all came around to ask why I was mowing the property. I said I bought it and it needed mowing, so I mowed it.
The owner of the property is dead. Son said he was not going to redeem, since he was not on title, and too much trouble to get title through court.
In steps neighbor. He contacts son, and offers to pay all expenses to get property in sons name, pay all taxes, redemption fees etc. and pay son a small fee in exchange for title when he gets it. When I learned of this, I contacted son, and offered to do same, and pay him more than neighbor. Neighbor counter offers. I counter offer. Neighbor counter offers again. I finally gave up. If I had not mowed the property, the neighbor would not have known about the sale, and I could have taken property after 90 day redemption period. Lesson learned I guess. Anyone ever have similar experience? Rick
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but did you not make money off of the tax lien that you bought? I mean, that is the real purpose of buying the tax lien, correct?
Also, I'm a little confused as to why you would be charged with mowing the property if all you owned was a tax lien against the property.
Roger
Roger,
I try to buy the properties for re-sale. As far as mowing, the city has a weed ordinance, and if the owner does not mow, then the city does, and tacks the cost onto the tax bill. If the owner does not redeem, then the buyer must pay all city taxes etc. before the county will issue a collectors deed. I talked to a city employee that says on a property like this one, the city would usually send out 3-4 guys to mow and weed eat. They calculate 3-4 guys wages, equipment considerations, (truck, mowers, wed eaters) travel time, gas, etc. City says it would cost approximately $150.00 to $200.00 to mow. I can mow it for alot less. County says I am responsible for all subsequent taxes, city and county during redemption period. Rick
A couple of responses:
1) You might have gone to the owner and got him to quit-claim the property before you went out to mow. Then the neighbor would have had no where to go.
2) Guess letting the city mow it doesn't look so bad now, does it? Bottom line, at certain points in a transaction the last thing you want to do is attract attention, any attention.
3) Well it doesn't exactly apply in your case but there is this wonderful legal phrase I love to throw around in such situation because it sounds so confusing that it intimidates people. "Tortious Interferrence with a Contract". In essence this doctrine says that if you and I enter into a contract to buy/sell a building (or anything else) it is a Tort (a civil wrong) for somebody else to go to you and, knowing about our contract, offer to buy the same building.
Now in the current case it doesn't apply because you had no contract with the seller. But at some point in the process I would have threatened to slap the neighbor with a Tortious Interferrence suit. Might have been intimidating enough to get him to drop the matter.
Maybe not, but what can you loose?
In that case me personally i would have told them that i was a city employee and informed them of the ordinance and went about my business. Most of the time i conduct business on a "need to know basis" and anyone who isn't involved in REI, close friend, relative, or partner doesn't need to know. Heck you could have probably got off with saying that the son paid you to mow it