WHO OWNS THE PROPERTY IN A TAX SALE?

WHO OWNS THE PROPERTY IN A TAX SALE?

If you don't pay your property taxes, you're likely to make the acquaintance of the County Sheriff. The sheriff sues you and takes ownership of the property.

When this happens, it's bad news for genealogists. The original property owners name will no longer appear as the seller when the property sold by the sheriff. In other words, the grantor becomes the sheriff. The grantee will be some unknown person while the property.

So where do you look to find out what happened? The local courts. The person you're looking for will show up as a defendant in a lawsuit for nonpayment of taxes. You may also find information about the court case in a legal notice published in a local newspaper.

By the way, if there was a new road or other public project going on, there may be a court action to acquire the property necessary for the project. It's called eminent domain. That's how towns counties and states obtain the land necessary to build all those superhighways of the public projects.