Note: BCP Real Estate is not a law firm and its employees/owners are not acting as your attorneys. The information contained on this website is provided for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter.
Finding out you’re a defendant in a tax lawsuit over a Tarrant County property you barely knew about is jarring. If that’s where you are, you’re in good company, because it happens to more families than you’d think.
Usually the first contact isn’t a letter, it’s a person. A constable or sheriff’s deputy comes to the door and serves you with a citation and an Original Petition. That in-person service catches people off guard, and a lot of them wonder if it’s even real. In these tax matters it’s typically just the standard first step in a civil case over unpaid property taxes. It isn’t a criminal charge, and it isn’t a scam.
The root of it is usually the same. When an owner passes away and no probate is filed, ownership flows to the next of kin under Texas intestacy laws, but the county’s deed records still list the person who died. When the taxes go unpaid long enough, the suit is filed and the county researches the family tree, adding living heirs, sometimes relatives who haven’t been involved in years.
In Tarrant County, taxes run through the Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector (100 E. Weatherford Street, Fort Worth, TX 76196; 817-884-1100), property values are set by the Tarrant Appraisal District, and the case is on record with the Tarrant County District Clerk. It’s all public, so you can check everything independently.
People generally handle it by resolving the lawsuit through an attorney, looking into a payment arrangement, or selling their portion, which takes them out of the lawsuit without needing everyone else to agree.
A couple of questions we hear a lot in Tarrant County:
I thought paying the taxes one year gave me ownership. Didn’t it? Paying taxes generally doesn’t transfer ownership of a property. It can keep things current for a while, but it doesn’t make the property yours or take the others off it.
What if a sibling is living in the house and won’t cooperate? You can still sell your own portion and step out of the situation. What the co-owner living there decides to do is separate from your ability to sell your share.
If you’re looking to remove yourself from a lawsuit and get paid for your interest, no cost to you, call or text us at (469) 708-8003 for an offer today.
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