Tax lien certificate sale
Hello All -
Complicated tax lien certificate issue here & would appreciate any insight or help.
Recently purchased 3 tax Lien certificates for properties in New Iberia, La, through the online auction.
For each of the properties, I won the bid with 100% bids. However, I'm starting to navigate through unfamiliar territories due to a few issues that arose. After purchase it came to light that my 100% bid is only 100% ownership of 1%, due to past tax liens, according to the property description. This is confusing, since I was under the impression that all other unpaid liens would be canceled if future taxes weren't paid by the lien holder.
To complicate matters, the parish sheriff's department informed me that two of the properties were in city limits & there were also unpaid city taxes. These tax lien certificates were apparently on auction as well and were sold to another party. The sheriff's dept said that they wouldn't worry about these as long as the owner pays back the penalty & interest within the redemption period. If they do not, then I should hire an attorney & look at paying these city taxes, but if I tried to pay them now (since the auction is over), the city wouldn't be able to pay me those funds.
It seems that if the property owner pays the parish penalty & fees, then I will be ok. But, if they do not pay within the redemption period, then I may be looking at a loss or a legal mess.
Again, any insight or help into this matter would be greatly appreciated. Not a ton of details on the internet.
Thank You,
Eric