Moon
08-16-2012, 02:33 PM
I bought two parcels in the August, 2008, Sonoma County tax default auction and have not been able to use either of them. Yes, i know the auction information says all over it that parcels are sold "as is," but the intentional withholding of information --in the listings and in the Tax Assessor's and Collector's Offices' handling of the new owner's attempt to find the parcels afterward--amount to fraud.
The county offices' staffs certainly knew there was no access, since owners have been trying for 35 years to get access. Once the property was purchased, those offices were obstructionist in withholding information that would have enabled me to find the land in less than eight months. I spent many hours doing research at both offices and once consulted the map expert--and easily $100 in gas, driving back and forth looking for the land--all to no avail, when pretty much everyone i dealt with had to have known there was a $10 map for sale there that a property owner can look at and in about five see exactly where the parcel is.
Is there a lobby of surveyors pressuring the county to try to force land owners to pay thousands to find their land? Is the county trying to delay the owner's discovery that there's no access as long as possible, to wear the owner out until s/he gives up? Why are we paying taxes to hire people to hide information from us? I'll bet i'm not the only one who's had this experience.
The county offices' staffs certainly knew there was no access, since owners have been trying for 35 years to get access. Once the property was purchased, those offices were obstructionist in withholding information that would have enabled me to find the land in less than eight months. I spent many hours doing research at both offices and once consulted the map expert--and easily $100 in gas, driving back and forth looking for the land--all to no avail, when pretty much everyone i dealt with had to have known there was a $10 map for sale there that a property owner can look at and in about five see exactly where the parcel is.
Is there a lobby of surveyors pressuring the county to try to force land owners to pay thousands to find their land? Is the county trying to delay the owner's discovery that there's no access as long as possible, to wear the owner out until s/he gives up? Why are we paying taxes to hire people to hide information from us? I'll bet i'm not the only one who's had this experience.