Help locating "lost owners"

Started by AmberW2 • 10 replies • 1389 views

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AmberW2 (Washington)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Hi there,
We have an ongoing problem with not being able to locate unit owners who are not paying dues, although all units are occupied with renters who are not eager to anger their landlords by "giving up to goods"... is there a resource for tracking down the names of persons(s) on Property Taxes, or other resources?

CarolF (Florida)
Posts: 435

Posted:

Amber - investigate your county's online resources. If you have a realtor friend, ask her/him about how to check this online. For example, my county in Florida has a site for real estate taxes that can be accessed by address. Also, the property appraiser's website can be accessed that way and will give the owner's name and address if the address is different from the site address. I don't know if Washington makes all this information available online, but it is very easy to find here.

MelissaP1 (Alabama)
Posts: 13,836

Posted:

Two things assured in life are: Death and Taxes. If you know the lot number of the property you can go to the Tax Assessor's office to find out who owns the property. You may need to get the platt of the entire HOA to properly identify the lot or however your property is identified for tax purposes. I believe a platt is PUBLIC accessible and can be found at the records department at your courthouse.

Keep in mind that the owner's address isn't the place they live, it's the address they own in the HOA. This means if you have the address of the property, you can send certified letters to that address. Check with your lawyer but you may not have to know the exact OUT of the HOA address of the owners to proceed with liens/foreclosures on that property. Matter of fact, they put the notice of lien/foreclosure in the classified section of the newspaper and consider that "Public Notice".

A owner can continue to rent their property out if there is a lien on the property. They just can't sell it. Foreclosure would remove the property from their ownership. You don't want to file a lawsuit as the owner can sell the property and move without ever paying a dime owed for years or ever.

Former HOA President

TimB4 (Tennessee)
Posts: 21,059

Posted:

Amber,

Here is a link to the Clark County Property Information Center:

http://gis.clark.wa.gov/gishome/property/

For other counties you can get to their web site from this link:

http://www.mrsc.org/byndmrsc/counties.aspx

Then look on the Counties web site for things like tax records or Property records.

If your County doesn't maintain a web site with that information on you will have to go to the courthouse to look up the information.

Tim

CharlesB17
Posts: 112

Posted:

The software that MyComPlus offers has this feature built in to it. We had the same problem for years. We would send out billings and out of the 2000 sent approximately 500 came back. Since we started using the software, we have less than 2 a year come back. They say they have a something called "Inteliggnet Data Gathering" and it alerts us if the owner changes or the peoperty sells, or if the owner changes his mailing address.

CharlesB17
Posts: 112

Posted:

Quote:

Posted By CharlesB17 on 05/07/2011 9:26 AM
The software that MyComPlus offers has this feature built in to it. We had the same problem for years. We would send out billings and out of the 2000 sent approximately 500 came back. Since we started using the software, we have less than 20 a year come back. They say they have a something called "Inteligent Data Gathering" and it alerts us if the owner changes or the property sells, or if the owner changes his mailing address.

Made some corrections in spelling.

AmberW2 (Washington)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Thank you to all who have written thus far. King County (where I live) did provide the names of all the registered owners. More issues... most don't live at these addresses and I have no way to contact them. I am trying to ask renters where they are paying dues... and most are paying to the Property Manager. His daughter, son, and family friends own at least 4 of 5 units in the building. What a mess. He's not helping us locate anyone.

How can I keep pushing and find this information? I am considering turning the whole thing over to a collections agency and having them work their magic, as they might have more resources in locating these individuals.

AmberW2 (Washington)
Posts: 3

Posted:

Thank you for your help!

CarolynL2 (Florida)
Posts: 73

Posted:

Have the Board pass a rule that all Property management companies authorized to do business within the condominium property must register with the association and provide copies of contracts and current contact information of Unit owners. Have the registration process include a statement that the management companies must comply with all rules and regulations. Failure to comply may result in notice of violation and possible termination of their right to conduct business within the properties.

Might want to run this by your attorney but I thought it might be a good idea to try.

Carolyn

JanetB2 (Colorado)
Posts: 4,219

Posted:

Hi Amber:

Did you look up the properties on the Tax Assessor's website? The site should have both the physical address for the property and the mailing address where they will send the property tax bills. Check it periodically because at some point they will possibly get a valid updated mailing address from the owners.

JanetB2 (Colorado)
Posts: 4,219

Posted:

Carolyn ... LOL That is actually a pretty darn good idea.

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