Abandoned Mobile home

[Paul007]

Im trying to by a double wide in NC. The house was pulled from the dealers lot to my property in July 1999. I have never made a payment or signed any paper work to make the deal final. The dealer is some kind of crooked dealer in our area as he has had his dealers licence taken away from him before. I have tried to close this deal with him three times going through three different dealer friends of his and have still had no joy. Im living in the house and have been since the day they set it up. Its been over a year since I heard from anyone about it and Im wondering if there is anything that you know of that I can do?? The house sits on my property and the taxes are still owed from day one. I didnt want to pay the taxes if it wasnt mine but now they are threatening to forclose on it. Should I pay the taxes or would I just be paying someone elses taxes?? People keep telling me that after the house has been sitting on my property for that length of time that I can apply for some kind of abbandoned title?? Is this true?? Any help or Info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Paul

[rmurray]

Abandoned title laws allow for the titling of a home when the owner is unknown...not the case here...

You could force the home off your property if you wish...You could also allow the county government to place a tax lien and by it at a tax sale..these are usually auctions and would require that you have cash to pay for your bid...Sometime bids are low...but not always..
Laws vary from state to state about tax sales..talk to your government tax collector..

It is hard to believe that you are living in this house...it does belong to someone..and it is probably a bank...Someday they will be at your door ready to retrieve this home as soon as they find it...

Smartest thing you could do is to arrange finance for some amount...maybe 60 to 70% of your original deal...use your property for additional collateral and get a good rate...even credit challenged folks can get these loans...once the finance is arranged...find the owner and make him an offer if he can get a clear title...Get legal advice...

[Paul007]

Thanks for the reply rmurry. Its true, the house does belong to somebody. Its the dealers house. He was a very crooked man selling homes to people in there childrens names and social security numbers. He was caught and forced to buy all the homes back, which broke him financially. The real reason he cant close the deal on this house is still unknown but we guess its because he has his licences to sell and set up homes taken away.
Someone else I talked to seems to think the house has already been written off and paid for by some insurance company somewhere and this may be another reason he wanted us to just make cash payments to him. Unfortunately, his people illegally pulled and set up the home with false permits before we got a chance to tell him that we didnt feel comfortable with the payment method and would rather go through some kind of finance company. This came about because we found out that the guy is a drunk and a gambeler and we would rather things were not left in his hands.
People tell us all the time, dont worry about it your living rent free. Well this is not what we want. Believe it or not its acctually quite a pain. We cant extend the porch and put the deck on that we want, put up our fence, change the carpets or do too many of any kind of remodelling incase its just yanked out from under us. It also works against us everytime we fill out important papers where its important to have a mortgage company or landlord payment or some kind of colateral. Its a crazy situation and Im sure it all evolves from some kind of illegal means. Oh well, I guess I'll just see what next year brings. Thanks all the same.