A couple who owns property at Bass Lake wants to take possession of unclaimed property adjacent to theirs, but it may not be an easy task.
Tom Horbach told the Starke County Commissioners this week that the property next to his in the 4200 S. block of 675 E. is a mess with trash. He wanted to see if the county owned the property and he would acquire it from the county so it could be rehabilitated.
According to County Attorney Martin Lucas, the problem is when subdivisions at Bass Lake were further divided more than a few decades ago, the titles weren’t properly recorded so the owner of record is not clear.
“Where unfortunately everything went wrong is the property never got taxed,” explained Lucas. “If it got taxed, this would have been solved because it would have gone up for tax sale and then you could have bought it at a tax sale. I don’t see the mechanism for the commissioners to provide any assistance in this other than if there was some way for the county to determine who the successors in interest were and start taxing them for the property. That doesn’t give you a quick result. That would be a couple of years out before it would do you any good.”
A question was raised whether the property would just go to the adjoining property owners.
“I don’t know of any doctrine that says that a property that has just has a messed up title goes to the adjoining land owners. I’m not saying that isn’t the case. That certainly applies when you have an easement. Right? If you have an easement that isn’t being used then if it’s abandoned or vacated then the adjacent property owners take to the center line, typically. If they own both sides they get the whole thing. This wasn’t an easement. This is just a property that didn’t get taxed for some reason.”
The owners will look into the matter to see who the successors are to possibly get the property purchased and titled.
