February 9, 2009

"I bought tax liens several years ago that have not been redeemed and I don’t want to deal with foreclosure on them. What else can I do?"

Arizona tax liens are now subject to statutes of limitations so that if you do nothing, they will eventually expire and you will be able to write them off as a tax loss. Assuming you would like to receive some value for them, if not have them be redeemed, you could sell the tax lien to a willing buyer for whatever price you can negotiate. That price may simply be the redemption value of the tax lien, which you can obtain from the County Treasurer’s office, or a greater or lesser amount based on other variables such as the quality of the property and unique facts known about the owner or the likelihood of foreclosure.

Alternatively, you can send the 30 day notice of intent to foreclose (the prerequisite to filing the foreclosure action) to try to trigger a redemption without necessarily following through with foreclosure action. A 30 day notice is good for 180 days from the date it is given. Having given the notice may add value to the tax lien if you are trying to sell it. Alternatively, less threatening contact (by phone or mail) could be made with the owner of the property mentioning the tax lien in case it was something that had escaped the owner’s notice.

Last, if your tax lien was purchased in one of the counties that requires subsequent taxes be paid or the lien becomes involuntarily assignable to the next delinquent year’s purchaser, you may simply decide to stop sub-taxing and see if your lien is purchased in that way.

ARS §§ 42- 18118C , 18121.01 , 18202