Crown Liens

[mesha]

We have searched a property and it has three registered crown liens on them?  Is it worth pursuing and searching these liens?

As I understand a crown lien overrides everything and if you purchase this property than the liens  become yours?

Has anyone ever looked into negotiating with the bank that has the liens on the property?

What happens to the property if no one bids, obviously then the City would not want ownership either because of the liens?

[Rob]

To deal with a crown lien you would need to contact what crown business or department that has placed the lien, find out why and how much it will cost you to have that lien divested from the property. 

Is it worth pursuing and searching these liens?

That's more of a question of the value of the property you are looking at.  If you are interested in the property I would suggest it may be useful to find out how much money you would need to put towards the liens, the back taxes, interest, etc.  Using this information you can determine the value of the bid you wish to place.  That will keep you on budget.

What happens to the property if no one bids, obviously then the City would not want ownership either because of the liens?

The city takes ownership.  Then can sell the property at market value.  The city could negotiate with the lien holders.  The city could merge two properties creating a more marketable property.   The city could turn the property over to the lien holders as payment.  In many cases its in the ciy's interest to have the property not sell at a tax sale, although not in most cases.

[Frank]

We have searched a property and it has three registered crown liens on them? Is it worth pursuing and searching these liens?

As I understand a crown lien overrides everything and if you purchase this property than the liens become yours?

Has anyone ever looked into negotiating with the bank that has the liens on the property?

What happens to the property if no one bids, obviously then the City would not want ownership either because of the liens?

The City will negotiate a deal with the crown agencies to take a portion of whatever it can get on the open market, if the crown agency is willing to work something out.  That doesn't always happen, and is a relatively recent phenomenon.  Bottom line is that if no deal can be worked out, then nothing happens and in one years time the Municipality will vacate the registration, but usually leave the tax liability intact and register another lien which starts the clock ticking again - hoping that in another year the crown agency might have had a change of heart and see that a slice of bread is better than no loaf at all.

I'm not too sure that you read your search results correctly.  Crown liens don't usually  involve banks, and therefore I'm wondering why you are wanting to negotiate with a bank.  I questions whether these are indeed crown liens.  You'd better double check.

[Frank]

The Ontario Gazette is up.  If you are interested in the Tillsonburg properties for sale this week, check them out at:

http://www.gov.on.ca/GOPSP/en/graphics/112256.pdf