In Canada, Canada Revenue Agency can and will do that especially if you have not come forward with a repayment plan. I have seen it happen with one client I was helping refinance. The lawyer called me a few days before closing to tell me that there was a substantial lien on the property (CRA) and that if funds are not available, we cannot close. We spoke with CRA but the clients did not have a clear pay out plan with them so the deal did went south.

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If someone doesn't pay their property tax, then the city will place a lien on their home, until they pay. if they still don't pay the city will put it up for sale, just for the price of their property tax bill that they owe. is this true, if so, is it also true that anyone can buy it? where do you find out about these sales?

Ok, here's the deal. Some posters above are spreading misinformation. Here in the US there are 2 systems that are used for dealing with delinquent property taxes--it depends on the state you are in. a) Tax Sale states - The Tax Collector will hold a public auction for the delinquent property. The minimum bid will be the amount of taxes owing, plus penalities, interest and the costs of the sale. Winning bidder gets the property for the amount of their bid, subject to any superior liens (e.g. IRS federal tax liens) and rights of redemption provided by the state's laws (i.e. the former owner may be able to buy their property back if they pay you what you paid for the property, plus an additional percentage, within a certain timeframe, generally up to 2 years). b) Tax Lien states - The tax collector will hold a public auction for the LIEN on the delinquent property for the amount of taxes owing, plus penalities, interest and the costs of the sale. Winning bidder gets the LIEN for the taxes for the amount of their bid. The state specifies what interest rate can be charged on this lien, and after how long of it remaining unpaid it can be foreclosed on. So here you've got to bring a foreclosure action in order to get ownership of the property, which can be costly. Then the former owner still may have a right of redemption. Easiest way to find out the method used in your area, plus any of the specifics of the sales is just to google "XXXX County Tax Collector". Most have websites with information on their tax sales.

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My dad died last year with scores of medical bills, unpaid utility bills, liens from old properties (he used to be in real estate), and a house full to the brim with trash (he was a hoarder). the house is paid off, no mortgage to speak of, but it would cost over $5k just to clean out. my sister took over managing the estate but never followed through, so everything has just sat for a year and nobody wants to deal with it...should we just wait for the city to take over the property? or could they come after us to take care of it? please help! we don't care about inheritance or anything, we just want to be rid of this nightmare!!

Whomever is the executer of his estate must take care of his assets and debts. They need to sell all his assets and pay any debts that they can. If he still owes after all the assets are exhausted, then those debts die with your father. Keep in mind that as executor, that person can collect reasonable fees for their time and services. On a personal note, waiting for your fathers house to rot or let the city deal with it is a bit odd. I would think that you;d want to try to wrap up your father's house and put it all to rest.

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I prefer a real attorney answer this. i am currently in litigation with my ex-boyfriend whom i transferred title to my home and now i am suing him for unjust enrichment. my mother rebought my house and moved in with me but now she is in a nursing home and there is a professional guardian who can sell any of her possessions, including her homesteaded house (which is my house, too--when she bought it back from my ex-boyfriend, the deed was put as joint tenancy with right of survivorship.) since the ex and i are in litigation that should have been mine in the first place, can i place a lien on the property so that the guardian would have to pay the lien before they could sell my mother's half of this homesteaded property? we reside in florida. what is going to happen to my house now that there is a greedy guardian and a greedy nursing home raking up huge bills on my mother's estate everyday until they deplete her so she can qualify for medicaid? i want to protect my house. read all.

Disclaimer: I'm not an attorney, and you do need one. If you are in litigation you should be talking to that attorney. 1. I don't know why you would transfer title to anyone in the first place. 2. Your mom bought back the house from who? The b.f? Why would she need to buy the house from the b.f. if you could get it back arguing "unjust enrichment?" 3. If you have the deed in JTTEN wROS, w/ the mom then you can sell the house, and I would take action before the guardian does, because the guardian can sell the house, and take the proceeds and leave you with nothing. The guardian may also suck the equity out by taking a loan against it, and have the house upside down with negative equity and leave you with the debt! I would have not put the house in JTTEN wROS. 4. You can't put a lean on property that you own. If the house is NOT in the b.f.'s name and you have it in JTTEN wROS as stated w/ your mom you can't put a lean on it. You can sell it though. 5. Odds are if you do nothing, you will loose the house. To qualify for Medicaid, you have to be virtually poor. 6. Sell the house, take 50% of the value and give her the other 50% of you want. Or sell it and take the money. Any party with JTTEN can act independently of the other without legal permission and take all the assets without the permission of the other. That is why you don't use JTTEN on property. 7. See an attorney fast. And a real estate attorney. 8. The most you might be able to get from the b.f is rent or any damage he may have done to the property. Since you freely transfered title, you could have just got it back. By buying the house you severely complicated this issue. Are you suing for the money your mom paid him for the house? Good Luck! 9. If the b.f declares Chapter 7 BK, you will prob get zip unless he has net assets over $22.5K. If you win and can collect on the suit, the "Guardian" may try to come after you for 50% of the money. 10. The b.f sold the property back to you? (bad move, I would have sued; no need to buy it; you would have got it back under the premise of "unjust enrichment." You just made your case more costly for you. And if the house was in your name before, it would have been returned to you in your name and you wouldn't have had greedy Med people sucking the equity out of the house. Since you put the title in JTTEN, now you have new problems. Who advised you to do that? I bet you will spend $30K+++ or more in legal fees and you'll be stuck with the bill. I have seen all sorts of legal and bad financial issues go wrong. 11. Alternative argument: If Guardian, (-- how is the person made LEGAL guardian now?) tries to take equity or sell the house, get a "temporary injunction" and sue the guardian to block the sale. Also you can tell the potential buyer if they buy the house you will sue them too since there is pending litigation (w/ b.f.) and that is loosely associated with the house. That should keep buyers away. 12. Alternate Argument #2 If you win the case vs the b.f, you might be able to litigate that the title should not have been subject to a plating change to JTTEN; it should have been placed back in your name only. This may be a stretch, but if you can successfully convince a judge, and a judge agrees, then you can sue the Guardian for all the funds taken out of the house that was not theirs for the taking! Pay back! And you mom prob will have qualified for Medicaid, and the Guardian can re bill medicate for expenses. 13. Alternate Argument #3 You know I get $300 hr for this right? ha ha! :) Ok, if all else fails, you can claim that the transaction for the sale of the house from the b.f to you and your mom was done under severe duress and confusion, if not insanity. I think it was crazy to to that. generally, if you can prove that you were under duress at the time of the contract/ sale, the contract may be voidable. You have a decent argument. The issue will be why did you transfer title in the first place? if the reason were unlawful transfer, or of sorts, you prob will not be able to make this argument. Good Luck! In the future. I would not engage in any material financial or legal transactions without first seeking an attorney, financial expert or CPA. unjust enrichment "A legal doctrine stating that if a person receives money or other property through no effort of his own, at the expense of another, the recipient should return the property to the rightful owner, even if the property was not obtained illegally. Most courts will order that the property be returned if the party who has suffered the loss brings a lawsuit." http://www.nolo.com/definition.cfm/Term/D87B554E-A16D-4320-81572AA5FB784730/alpha/U/

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I am a real estate investor who comes across several people per month who are currently days away from losing their house because of a certain type of lien that has been placed on their home in an amount ranging anywhere from 5-20k. other than this lien, the homes are paid off and there are no other liens, including irs. normally, i would offer to purchase the property at a discounted rate (outside of escrow, i’m very careful with this) however some people just flat out do not want to get rid of their home, by selling or losing it to the lien company, so i was going to see if you folks could help me find a solution that would work. the person and i meet together about a week before the due date, and they need my money to bail out their home so they don’t lose it. (many of these people have just found out that the home they own is being sold only a matter of days or weeks before the sale, for whatever odd reason. most often, someone else was supposed to be paying a certain type of bill for a number of years, and then it becomes a lien). these people that i work with have no money, otherwise they would have paid off the small lien. the value of their homes range anywhere from 50-100k+ i need to get paid somehow for the solution/cash that i am presenting to the person. i was talking to someone about this and they suggested that the person sign a document (created by an attorney) that says the home owner will deed their house to me (right then and there), i will pay their lien off to stop it from going to sale, and then they will have an ‘option to buy’ valid over the next 3 months. the option to buy will be the dollar amount of money that i put, plus 5k [my profit]…and they can figure a loan out themselves either through a bank or a hard money lender. so if a person wants to keep their house, (or they could just sell over their interest in the home, but i am trying to figure out a back up plan so they can keep it) what other options can i offer people instead of this one here? the one above needs to be cleaned up, but that’s a general example, i just need some more help with creative financing/options for the person losing their house and for myself to have something fair for both of us.

This sounds very odd. Just exactly what kind of lien do you mean when you say that it is because of "a certain type of lien?" Also, do you not find it odd that there are such a large number of people who did not know they were being foreclosed on until they are just days/weeks away from being put out? Foreclosures do not work that way. At least not in the United States. And how many home owners actually have "someone else" who was "supposed to be paying a certain type of bill for a number of years?" And as far your involvement, I think this sounds very risky. If the homeowner doesn't have $5K-$20K to keep the home out of foreclosure, I don't believe they would be able to come up with the money in as short of time as 3 months. And if they can't get approved for a loan at the time of foreclosure, then they probably won't qualify just 3 months later.

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My dad is in jail and he owes a substantial amount of money to the state in taxes. i got a letter saying that if it is not payed by next month they will go through the process of collection by way of garnishing wages, lien and this is what worries me seizing real estate/property. right now me and my mom are fighting to pay the mortgage and various other bills. what should i do? call them up and tell them the situation? i'm not quite sure what to tell them. there is no way we can pay them for my dad's debt when we can barely pay to live in our house. everything is in my dad's name including my car that is payed off and ours. when i get power of attorney should i switch the car into my name to protect it? just a note, the amount owed is around $15,000.

They will not take anything but they will put liens on your property so that you cannot sell it without paying the state. If you try to change the registered owner of your father's property, this can be reversed if you are taken to court.

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Short sighted of me, i know. today i got my credit report and score. i have two items negatively impacting my credit, but they are both the same thing. it was a purchase made at circuit city that my ex-husband made on a credit card in my name. the circuit city delinquency shows up, as does the collection agency that they placed it with. the statements were going to my previous address where i lived with my ex, so i never had a clue about it until today. the original charge was $494, and now my credit report shows that the outstanding balance is $619. my ex husband has recently passed away, and now i own the home that he lived in. we had no liens on the property, and his bills. with the exception of that one, were all to date. from speaking to my attorney, it appears that as my name is on the deed, the estate will not have to be probated, as he had zero outstanding debt. my plan is to get a home equity line of credit on that home, for a very low interest rate. this will allow me to pay down the mortgage on my current home, and then be able to refinance it using the equity gained. i will also then be able to do the repairs needed to my ex's home, to either sell it, or make it suitable for tenants. i purchased my home 4 years ago for $130,000. i've made many improvements (new electrical service, new windows, remodeled upstairs), and my real estate agent friend says the house will easily appraise for $160,000 at this point. given this figure, i'd have about $45,000 in equity. my ex's house had a town assessment of $265,000 (with no liens). i have unfortunately not had a credit card for years. the good standing accounts in my rating are 2 that are paid/closed/never late, and one that is a checking account with an overdraft protection that is open/never late. my credit score is 651. will paying the account that is negatively impacting my score help immediately? should i answer one of the hundreds of credit card offers that come my way, and pay it off religiously? i guess i'm wondering what would be the fastest way to get my credit score high enough to qualify for a home equity loan on the second home. sorry for being long-winded, but i think i got all the essentials in.

It will help within 60 days in the sense that the account will be shown as paid. But payment alone is not the criteria. The lateness of the payment will hang around and negatively impact your score for some time. Under these circumstances, I would attempt to get a note posted to your credit account explaining that it was an ex-husbands debt and that you paid it fully within days of discovering it. That may help... if they read it. Your current credit score isn't bad by any means.

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I am current on my mortgage and taxes. i am only delinquent on the hoa fees. however i received a notice that they had filed a lien on the home and wanted me to pay to remove lien. however, i have a hud lock on my back door. and someone has been in the house leaving notes about winterizing it. this may be due to me not living in the home for two years. however i was working out of state. i checked all the tax assessor and register sites and although i am still listed as the owner on each one i see that in october of 2009 a substitute trustee was placed over the property. if i have lost my home why is my name still being listed as owner on all the city/county records and why is my mortgage company continuing to bill me? what could the situation be about the substitute of tr being placed over my home? please if you are a realtor or attorney advise what i can do about this... this situation has worried me so much i have started to think about ending my life.

how can you be current on anything if you are not occupying your property? Leaving a unit empty for 2 yrs is......ineffective use of assets. Call all people -institutions that have applicable relations with property owners. If there is a trustee, check with the county recorder--someone had to legally be so assigned. MAYBE it is a spoof to see if you are alive or dead.........

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Here's the situation: there is a condominium complex with lots of condos owned by many different people. each condo is its own separate piece of real estate. a painter paints some of the condos, but not all (maybe 20% of them). the individual condo owners that got painted do not pay the painter. the painter files a lien on the entire condominium property. this means all units in the condos (even those he did not paint). he did not paint any common areas (stairwells/hallways, etc). now, no one can sell their condos because a couple of their neighbors skipped out on their bill. if this were an apartment complex, i'd understand it, because that's all one big block of real estate. however, here we have individual, separate condos that are their own independent real estate units.... i think the painter "cast too wide of a net" with his lien and caught people up in it who don't owe him anything. does this invalidate his lien? is there anything that can be done about this?

The painter did, indeed, cast too wide a net. Someone who is damaged by the lien (or the homeowners association) needs to test the lien in court. It should be declared null and void because it illegally encumbers property interests that were not benefited by the painters services.