Help! Can Anyone Redeem On Behalf Of The Owner?

I purchased a lien at the Christian County Missouri 2006 tax sale. A construction company came along in January and tried to redeem the property. They had no recorded deed.

One of the owners’ is deceased. The other owner claiming to be the Personal Representative of the deceased, sold the property. He signed his interest over through a warranty deed that does have the same name on the deed as the original deed. He then signed a Personal Representative deed. The case had not been filed in probate and he did not have court permission to sell the property.

An attorney did the closing and then never filed the deeds or paid the taxes. The probate file was not opened until 5 months after the alleged sale. Eight months after the tax sale the attorney filed the deeds but still had not gotten the probate court permission to sell and no affidavit explaing the difference in the signed name.

Now everyone is suing everyone else. The man who sold it through his attorney is suing the attorney for legal malpractice. The people who bought but have invalid deeds are suing me because I objected to the redemption.

The Bar Association is the attorney’s legal malpractice carrier. The Bar/Bar Ins. Carrier wants the people who purchased the property through this attorney to end up with the property to limit their liability. So now one day before the end of the redemption period the Bar has redeemed in the name of the estate and former owner.

Can they do this?

Well it definately sounds like a real mess, but yes anyone can go pay taxes on a property. I can come pay taxes on your property if I wanted to, but that doesn't give me any legal claim to the property or against you, I am just out the money unless we had an agreement in place.

The county is just like any other business, they don't care who pays the taxes or the bills as long as they get paid.

With all the lawsuits flying around, I think I would be happy to have the lien paid off and collect my interest and move on to the next deal. Sometimes sanity is worth more than the fight - though you never did say what the property is worth.

It basically boils down to you had a tax lien, the tax lien was paid off - who paid it off is not at issue, though it may seem important.

Good Luck.

Dnvrkd:


But weren't the taxes already "paid' to the County.....by the lien purchaser?

It seems the County bears some responsiblity for this situation.

Well the way I am reading this is that there was a tax lien purchased against a property and yes that is usually in the amount of the taxes due, plus some administration fees.

The lien can be removed by the taxes and fees being paid and any interest that is due. The is usually paid by the owner of the property or by the purchaser of the property when a home owner sells as they can't afford the taxes any more.

The poster stated that it was 1 day before the end of the redemption period ended. While not an ideal situation on getting XX% interest instead of a property worth many times more your tax bill, the lien can still be paid off or redeemed by anyone who wants to pay those taxes - an owner, a purchaser of the property or Santa Claus.

The only difference in the case where someone that buys a tax lien is that you have a legal way to collect your payment of the taxes, if I come pay the taxes on your property on my own I have no legal means to collect that money.

My guess is that the Bar looked at this as a small way to correct the error of a sale taking place without the tax lien being addressedm, and will now address the issue of clean title for the buyers.

Copied from MO Revised Statutes

140.340. 1. The owner or occupant of any land or lot sold for taxes, or any other persons having an interest therein, may redeem the same at any time during the one year next ensuing, in the following manner: by paying to the county collector, for the use of the purchaser, his heirs or assigns, the full sum of the purchase money named in his certificate of purchase and all the cost of the sale together with interest at the rate specified in such certificate, not to exceed ten percent annually, except on a sum paid by a purchaser in excess of the delinquent taxes due plus costs of the sale, no interest shall be owing on the excess amount, with all subsequent taxes which have been paid thereon by the purchaser, his heirs or assigns, with interest at the rate of eight percent per annum on such taxes subsequently paid, and in addition thereto the person redeeming any land shall pay the costs incident to entry of recital of such redemption.

So my question would be dealing with the wording "having an interest". Would this mean they have a vested interest in the property, such as an owner, someone with money tied up in the property, or someone who has a claim to the property of some type. Or would "having an interest" be just anyone that took a fancy to the property. We need to know the defination (legal) of "having an interest". Also see Blacks Law dictionary

having an interest

Kaylee
I have looked at the statutes as best this poor layman can. After going over them (the statutes) the previous post dealing with "having an interest" is the only hope I can see for you. You need to get a legal defination. Sorry i can't be of better help. i got caught in a situation dealing with paying back money for a property that was redeemed and the county collector /lawyers used the phrase " incident to recital" as their reason for charging me the other guys title search, his attorney fee's, and I can't remember what all else. Good luck

Thank you all for taking the time to respond. "interest in" definately means legal interest. I got that cleared up with the Missouri State Tax Commission.

I am in GA and we have deeds not liens, so I am not sure if this would apply. Anyone with a legal interest in the property can redeem it. We have had several homes/properties that were redeemed by the mortgage companies instead of the owner. It doesn't have to be the owner redeeming the property, as long as there is some legal connection to the property. Not just any Joe Blow can redeem, there has to be a paper trail showing their interest.