Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California
here is a long winded question. My grandparents owned their home before they past. while they were alive, an easement to their property was offered to them for purchase by the city. they purchsed this easement but it remained a seperate title. when both parents passed away the properties were inherited by my mother. in 2005 she sold my grandparents home but for whatever reason that back easement was not included in the sale. fast forward to now, she's been recieving deliqeuent property tax bills all these years (i'm only now finding this out) for this small piece of landlocked property. what can she do at this point? does she owe the taxes? i know she has to get the property out of her name asap, but who does it go to? the new owners? they aren't going to want to pay the back taxes either, nor should they have to if they didn't know about them. i don't want to wait till i end up inheriting this problem myself.
1 Answer from Attorneys
She owes the taxes on property she owns.
Real property on which taxes are delinquent becomes �tax defaulted property� by operation of law and declaration of the tax collector. ��Tax-defaulted property� is real property which is subject to a lien for taxes which, by operation of law and by declaration of the tax collector, are in default and from which the lien of the taxes for which it was declared tax-defaulted has not been removed.� (Rev. & Tax. Code, � 126.)
The property remains subject to the original owner�s rights of redemption until those rights are terminated. �Tax-defaulted property may be redeemed until the right of redemption is terminated.� (Rev. & Tax. Code � 4101.)
If the property is not redeemed within five years after it becomes tax defaulted, the property is subject to sale by the tax collector. Five years or more after the property has become tax defaulted, the tax collector shall have the power to sell and shall attempt to sell in accordance with Section 3692 all or any portion of tax-defaulted property that has not been redeemed, without regard to the boundaries of the parcels, as provided in this chapter,
unless by other provisions of law the property is not subject to sale.
(Rev. & Tax. Code � 3691 subd. (a)(Emphasis added.)
If the property is truly landlocked, and she does not want it, a tax foreclosure sale may be iof benefit to her, because the property is usually offered to adjacent neighbors in what is known as a sealed bid sale.
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