Facing a tax lien in Columbia, MD, and unsure where to turn? LewisMcDaniels is here to help.
Facing a tax lien is an incredibly challenging situation to find yourself in, especially if you have no prior experience dealing with one or a sufficient understanding of tax law. Not knowing where to turn, it is completely normal to feel overwhelmed, stressed, and even lost.
Potentially having to deal with a tax lien can cause incredible anxiety and uncertainty, but this doesn’t have to be so. With the right support and guidance, you can manage the situation you find yourself in and land a great addition to your real estate portfolio.
Ryan Lewis can be your guide on your way to this destination. He is a tax lien defense attorney and principal partner at LewisMcDaniels based in Frederick, MD. LewisMcDaniels serves the entire Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, including Columbia, MD.
Ryan has over a decade of experience filled with unique experiences that make him a strong candidate if you need tax lien lawsuit representation. He served as local counsel for various investment funds where he offered tax lien-collateralized securities. This helped them raise over $350 million.
A tax lien is essentially just a legal claim the government makes against you for your property because you’ve failed to pay taxes that you owe.
These liens can be made in various contexts, including against individual property owners or investors, specifically if they fail to pay income tax, property tax, or other taxes. The government uses tax liens to secure debt and protect its interest in the property on which it levies the lien.
Various government agencies impose tax liens across all levels of government. A tax lien can have serious consequences for you, negatively affecting your credit score and making selling or transferring the property in question especially difficult to do. Failure to pay the tax owed can even mean your property will eventually be sold off in order to satisfy the debt you have outstanding in tax foreclosure.
How long a tax lien will be an issue for you depends on several things. All in all, the process can last from a few months to a few years. Regardless of how long its duration is, there is generally a consistent process with many stages you’ll experience.
At this stage of the process, the government assesses property taxes. If it finds something unpaid, it will issue a notice to the property owner. The purpose of this notice is to inform them of the outstanding taxes, including the amount owed, any penalties, and the actual lien, should the taxes remain unpaid.
The government will publicly announce the lien after time has passed with no response from the property owner. These announcements notify the community and potential investors about the upcoming property sale.
If the property owner has still not done anything to resolve the situation, the government will likely proceed with selling the property. These sales are often done via auction, where buyers can bid on the item with the highest bidder receiving the property.
The government generally gives yet another opportunity for the property owner to redeem the property before proceeding.
Failure of the property owner to redeem the property means the process advances to the foreclosure stage. Here, the legal ownership – the title – is legally transferred to the lienholder.
This is the most pressing question most people who face a tax lien have, and it’s completely understandable as to why. Simply put, completing tax foreclosure transfers ownership, but it does not guarantee a clear title.
Although a property goes through legal proceedings, this doesn’t mean hindrances there may be against it magically disappear. If there is a mortgage, judgment, or there are any other liens against the property, they will continue to exist. Generally, the order of priority determines the order by which these are satisfied. A tax lien settlement lawyer is truly key in navigating these especially complicated issues effectively and successfully.
LewisMcDaniels, Frederick, MD
If you are looking to buy a property with a tax lien in Columbia, MD, call us at (301) 818-0405 or submit a contact form today! We are fully committed to assisting you acquire a property to make an even more robust real estate portfolio. When you reach out to us, we will immediately begin to develop a strategy that ensures you are able to obtain the property as quickly and inexpensively as possible.