Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Georgia

I'm currently owner financing land/home to Lessee since

2004. In 2007, unbeknownst to me, Lessee went to County Tax

office and had property taxes of said land/home put in his

name. Once I found out, I contacted said office and inquired

about it. They(tax office) said it was legal for him to do

so but that the said property is still listed as me being

the owner of property and if he was to default, I would be

liable for taxes.

That's not the problem as of yet. A point has been brought

up to me that if Lessee continues to make the property tax

payments for 7 years continuously, the owner of property

automatically converts to Lessee. Is this the case and if

so, must I hire an attorney to correct this before the 7

years is up.....2014?


Asked on 6/30/13, 8:36 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Scott Riddle Law Office of Scott B. Riddle, LLC

Your post is not clear. Owner financing implies you sold the property. Hopefully, you had a lawyer draft and/or review all the documents and the entire transaction before you entered into such a major transaction. No, there is no general rule that if someone pays taxes for 7 years they own the property (you can google "adverse possession" to learn more about that). I'd suggest it would be worth paying a lawyer a couple hours of time to do a general review of the situation in case there are other issues that may have arisen over 9 years, discuss the tax question, and generally give you some comfort as you go forward. Small price to pay.

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Answered on 7/01/13, 6:27 am


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