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California: Buying/selling a house with an IRS tax lien

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mincali

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? California

Hi,

I was planning on buying a house from a friend that has a tax lien against it, which would come out of the money paid for the house. He's telling me that he's been told that the house can't be sold (not sure if he was told be an accountant, IRS, or attorney, but I believe it was an accountant) because of the lien.

Is this true? Is there any situation where you can't buy/sell a house with a lien, when you're willing to pay off the lien? The total was around $340k, ~$70k of which would go to the IRS.

I know he wants the money and not the house, so I believe that he's being honest with me -- but I'm not sure if he's getting the best info from whoever he's talking to.

I do know the lien is very recent, within a few months, for back taxes, if that makes any difference.

Thanks in advance for any tips or info!What is the name of your state?
 


LdiJ

Senior Member
mincali said:
What is the name of your state? California

Hi,

I was planning on buying a house from a friend that has a tax lien against it, which would come out of the money paid for the house. He's telling me that he's been told that the house can't be sold (not sure if he was told be an accountant, IRS, or attorney, but I believe it was an accountant) because of the lien.

Is this true? Is there any situation where you can't buy/sell a house with a lien, when you're willing to pay off the lien? The total was around $340k, ~$70k of which would go to the IRS.

I know he wants the money and not the house, so I believe that he's being honest with me -- but I'm not sure if he's getting the best info from whoever he's talking to.

I do know the lien is very recent, within a few months, for back taxes, if that makes any difference.

Thanks in advance for any tips or info!What is the name of your state?
Off the top of my head I can think of no situation where a house couldn't be sold due to a tax lien.

Of course, the mortgage company would come first...so if the purchase price wouldn't satisfy the outstanding mortgage PLUS satisfy the lien....someone might not want to sell the property at that point. They might choose to hold on to it for a better offer or until it could command a price high enough to satisfy both.
 

mincali

Junior Member
Thank you for the reply.

It turned out to bad info and the house can be sold.

There was only around $20k on the mortgage, so that wasn't a problem, even when added to the lien.

Thanks again!
 

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