Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Indiana

My mother purchased a house in september 2007. The entire property consists of a lot 50x150 that the house sits on, and a partial adjoining lot that is 22x75. When she received her first tax statement, in the spring of 2008, she paid the taxes as she has each subsequent year, including this one. A few days ago, she received a tax statement in the mail, from the bank that owned the house before her. The auditor explained that the house was never transferred into my mother's name, that it was still on their computers as that bank still owning it and they were sending the tax statements to that bank, and so the taxes were never paid by anyone. That bank either never contacted the auditor to let them know they were no longer responsible or the auditor did nothing to correct the situation. This year however, the bank sent the statement directly to my mother, otherwise, she would not have questioned the auditor and discovered that her property had been sold last October at a tax sale, and in order to keep the house, that she has been faithfully been paying on for three years, she has to come up with over five thousand dollars. I do not understand why there was two different tax statements when the property was sold as a whole,and why one part of the property was transferred into my mother's name, but the other was not. My mother asked the auditor if she was supposed to have done something when she bought the house, the woman told her her no that it just had not been transferred yet. How can they sell her house without notifying her and how can they make her pay all that to keep her house when it seems to me that this should have been cleared up that first spring when the tax statement went to the wrong place?


Asked on 5/14/10, 8:10 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Jay Rigdon Rockhill Pinnick LLP

This can be fixed, but she needs to go see a lawyer in her community IMMEDIATELY. There is nothing that she can do on her own or in this forum to solve the problem.

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Answered on 5/20/10, 8:57 am


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