If you buy a house from the County in a courthouse step tax sale, when is the date the old owner has to be out? Is the tax sale act like a sheffifs eviction or is there some “x” amt of time that a person has to get his stuff out, Im not asking about informal agreement just wondering about the legal rights in the situation. Is it the day of the close or is there some additonal eviction proceeding that needs to be undertaken?
IANAL, but from assisting a friend in such a transaction:
The owners-before-the-county-took-it-for-taxes have a certain “redemption period” when they can pay off the tax debt and your money will be refunded.
After that, a quitclaim deed from the county that gives you fair title to the land is provided to you. At that point, it’s your property and if anyone is still living in it, including the previous owners, you can commence eviction proceedings.
Ordinarily, the city or county will advise them of their need to get out before title is passed to you, but AFAIK that’s a courtesy, not their legal duty.
Check this out with a lawyer with a New York State real estate practice.
poly…eviction proceedings take approx 3 months from scratch does the getting the title part speed any of this process u at all or do you have to serve a 3day etc. and start from the beginning. Also after the tax bidding/sale is complete on the courthouse steps they STILL have a grace period to pay even after i get the winning bid?
I dunno for sure, since his property was vacant – all he needed to do was wait for the deed to be signed over to him. Exactly what right of redemption the previous owners may have is something I’m not totally sure of, as well – but there was mention of that in the confirmation of the winning bid that my friend received.
As far as eviction, this situation differs from the normal one where you’re throwing a tenant out for nonpayment or such. When you get the deed, these people are occupying your property without any agreement between you and them; I’d suspect a three-day “get out” notice served by the sheriff or constable would be sufficient. You aren’t looking to collect back rent from a deadbeat legal tenant; you’re faced with squatters who once had a legal right to the property but no longer do – through their own failure to pay. You can contact your county sheriff or your town or city constable or whatever your community uses in place of a constable, and have them served with three-day notice to vacate without any of the preceding steps, is my guess. But that’s one good reason to see a lawyer first.
As a suggestion, ask the county attorney what steps you need to take to achieve effective possession. He has to be involved in the property transfer, regardless of who’s doing the actual vending of title, as the counsel of record for the county. And he presumably knows the law on this stuff in his sleep, having handled such sales in the past.