Tax Sale @ Harris County Tax Auction Question (Howe: tax lien, foreclosure)

[conceptxp]

Hi,

I recently bought a redeemable tax deed from auction in Harris County during Aug 2010.

I know the Redemption period is 2 years for non-homestead in Texas. I've checked hcad.org (Harris county tax assessment office) right now it states me as the legal owner or property.

My question is what do I do next?

Today, I have received a letter from the county property collection saying

I have Property tax past due.

Does this mean I own this place now?
Or I need to wait for the redemption period is over and then foreclose the property?

Or is there a legal procedure I need to follow?

Do I also need to worry about the paying the property tax? Since I think the previous owner is not going to pay for it plus I think they are still living inside.

Can I start evict the people who live in the house or I would need to wait till redemption period is over?

What happen if I pay the property tax, then the previous owner decides to redeem the property back within redemption period? Would I loose on paying the property tax money?

What happen if I do not pay the property tax? Will this make the property go back to the Tax Sale auction Again?


Appreciate for your feedback
Thanks!

[Poltracker]

You should have learned all this Before you bought the property. You do know that you are responsible for all the other liens on the property like the mortgage? At this point, you propbably need to speak with an RE attorney.

[City Love]

You should probably talk to a title company and do a title search on the property to check for all liens and back taxes.

I agree, these are all questions that should of been asked before. I wish you the best of luck.

[testmo]

you should have researched at the beginning or someone gave you horrendous advice. it is not a safe bet for a lay person to get into buying tax liens and deeds i.e. typically they lose big bucks

when you won the bid for the deed you became rightful owner. you just couldnt do anything. the redemption period is for the person who "owned" it or lives there to settle or pay up. you cant force an eviction or even get in the persons business until after the redemption period. you will have to pay everything once the balls in your court including the foreclosure costs

i believe in some states the holder (you) are responsible for payments during the redemption period. i dont know if that is true here. everything is time sensitive. you dont act on the lien or deed you could lose it completely

good luck getting out of it

[Carla Hailey]

Originally Posted by testmo

you should have researched at the beginning or someone gave you horrendous advice. it is not a safe bet for a lay person to get into buying tax liens and deeds i.e. typically they lose big bucks

when you won the bid for the deed you became rightful owner. you just couldnt do anything. the redemption period is for the person who "owned" it or lives there to settle or pay up. you cant force an eviction or even get in the persons business until after the redemption period. you will have to pay everything once the balls in your court including the foreclosure costs

i believe in some states the holder (you) are responsible for payments during the redemption period. i dont know if that is true here. everything is time sensitive. you dont act on the lien or deed you could lose it completely

good luck getting out of it

The biggest mistake new tax lien and deed investors make is they don’t do their research on the county or the property.

[conceptxp]

Originally Posted by Carla Hailey

The biggest mistake new tax lien and deed investors make is they don’t do their research on the county or the property.

So I have gone through the court, and already evicted the people who lived in the property.

Funny thing is there is no mortigage and no lien - i ran a report.

I only paid back owed property tax.

Does this mean I am new owner of the property since the redemption is 2 years?

[City Love]

Originally Posted by conceptxp

So I have gone through the court, and already evicted the people who lived in the property.

Funny thing is there is no mortigage and no lien - i ran a report.

I only paid back owed property tax.

Does this mean I am new owner of the property since the redemption is 2 years?

I'm not an attorney, but if you've ran a title search and it comes up clean with no clouding at all, then yes.

[texsn95]

I've never heard of this...cliff notes? I'm reading about it now but still don't really understand what it's all about.

[Hawk11ns]

I am not a lawyer and this is NOT legal advise but what I personally understand is that once I purchase a property lein it becomes mine 100% with the caveat that there is a 2 year redemption period. I will bear all costs to maintain the property from the get-go. However, if the previous owners wish to redeem the property then they have to pay me every last cent I spent on that property from taxes, insurances, upkeep to renovations and buildings.

[TaxSaleMaster]

None of the people posting responses to your question know what they are talking about. First of all, non-agriculture non-homestead property has a 6 month redemption period. As the successful bidder at the auction, you receive a deed to the property. The deed vests good and perfect title to the purchaser at the tax sale as to the interest owned by the defendant in the lawsuit subject only to their right of redemption. Once the deed is executed by the sheriff, you have the right to use, occupy and enjoy the property. You can immediately begin proceedings to evict anyone living in the house. Any mortgage, lien or deed of trust holder is extinguished provided that they were also included in the tax suit. However, this statutory provision won't keep them from suing you or moving forward with foreclosure of their lien. If they had a recorded mortgage, lien or deed of trust on the subject property and were not included in the suit then the suit has no effect on their interest and the purchaser of the tax sale takes the property subject to those interests. Buying property from a tax sale is extremely dangerous because the sheriff's deed is a quitclaim deed and there are no warranties. There are all kinds of things that can go wrong for the tax sale purchaser. For instance, the county may have messed up and sued the wrong person. If you purchased the subject property at a subsequent sale, you would receive this defendant's interest in the property, which is nothing. Therefore, technically, you have purchased nothing. If the county does sue the right person and I come in one day before the tax sale and buy the subject property from this defendant and you purchase it at a tax sale a day later, you have still received nothing. No amount of research in the world is going to discover this pre-tax sale purchase. I have personally used this technique to void tax sale purchaser's deeds in trespass to try title suits. Buying from a tax sale is extremely risky and 95% of the purchaser's, even if they are seasoned tax sale purchasers, have no idea how they can get screwed and lose a lot of money.