Need help/advice

[Jess]

I have a pretty long story but will shorten it as much as possible. My husband and I bought our 1999 Chandelur (sp?) new in 99'. We purchased it because his parents had 35 acres and we were told non of the other children wanted the land and we would inherit. Just a little over a year ago, his mother died. Only just then did we find out the secret she had somehow been keeping since 1996. She had not been paying the property taxes. Those taxes now amount to over $50,000 which my father in law has no intention of paying again (he gave her the tax money - she spent it elsewhere). The land therefore has a federal lein (?sp) on it and we are not able to purchase any of it and when my father in law dies, we will have to find somewhere else to live. We feel like we are caught between a rock and a hard place. We have decent credit but cant refinance or get another loan because we don't own the land the MFH is on. We dont know what to do and are trying to consider and learn about what options we have. I know we are interested in selling the house, but we owe basically the same as when we bought it. We were thinking if someone would want to just take over payments... would that be an option? We bought the MFH when we were young and had one child with no plans for more. Now it does not really serve out 5 person family any longer and we will need to either move it and build on or sell it somehow and move on...
Any and all help and advice is welcome. We have been trying to figure out what to do for over 6 months and dont know what else to do. I do know it is a lesson in the end no matter what, but we really dont want to end up homeless because of really no fault of our own except for trusting family
Thanks

[rmurray]

You have mixed a few terms here...You mention the property taxes went unpaid...then mention there is a federal lien......The federal government does NOT have a property tax...thank goodness....A federal lien almost always refers to income taxes....The amount you mention seem to probably refer to income taxes......Seldom would 10 years of real estate taxes be near this high...

I assume you have gotten good legal advice...If this is real estate taxes the value of the land is VERY high probably over $300K...It would be foolish to give this to the government...If your dad doe not care or want the land..maybe he will give you his legal interest and you could borrow enough to pay it off...Selling a home to be moved is very hard and expensive for you...

If it is a FEDERAL lien..there is a time limit of only 10 years on them...Get a copy of the lien from the court house and read it...It will go away 10 years after it was filed...Again..legal advice is called for to know your and your families rights...

[Jess]

I am sorry, I mixed terms... yes, it was income taxes that went unpaid-he is self employed... No, as of yet we have not saught legal counsel in our affairs. We know his father tried to get the IRS to take a lesser payment and he was denied. I dont know that we could afford to nor even where to start looking for "good" legal advice. The property did appraise at roughly $50,000 something, that is all for the 35 ml acres and a few outbuildings (it is land locked property). The chance of us getting a loan is out of the question, because we dont own any land and the house (the MFH we live in now) has more owed on than its value. The problem is the lien has been refiled every year it went unpaid and it would be in the year 2014 before it is out from under liens. We really are not completely comfortable just waiting around to see what happens/if it does go in case of his father dying.
As far as legal advice, if it could be afforded, where would we start looking? What type of attorney/lawyer?
Thank you for your help.

[rmurray]

You do need legal advice....I would try an attorney who specializes in real estate law...almost all attorneys have some understanding of the IRS...
A well developed professional request to the IRS will often result in a compromise on the Ira's part...When your dad filled out the form..he probably did not know how to exactly how to word things to satisfy the IRS that they are getting the most they can for the government...

A good real estate attorney should be able to refer you to a skilled tax professional in your area...The land locked part would be much more worrisome to me..I would be working on getting a proper right away and legal right to access the property on the driveway you now use..again a real estate attorney can advise you how to do this in your state..It would be a shame if you got past the IRS only to have the next door property owner to forbid you access.....