Have you ever come across a property with title issues? Maybe some back taxes? Well I wish it were that easy for a recent piece of property in my area. There are several ranches that sold town lots for development in the early 1900's. However these lots were never developed and most of the people who bought the lots stopped paying the taxes.
What happened is the land never was divided and eventually the original seller passed the ranch land down to his heirs without a clear title. The heirs own over 200 acres of land with over 100 people and families holding deeds to the city lots that were never developed. The heirs to the 200 acres have been current on the taxes for the entire parcel which includes the city lots.
This is a clear cut case of adverse possession, but title companies won't touch it because of the 100 people who have deeds to the old city lots. The title company tells him he must get the 100 people who have deeds to sign their lots over to him before they will close the property. Sounds simple enough right? His first phone call was to a local couple who owned one of the lots and found out that they had passed away and left the lot to their 12 children who were spread throughout the U.S. What is the seller to do? We have encouraged him to find a real estate lawyer and go through the process of adverse possession.
Any other advice?
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