Is it possible to abandon land?

[KrillBee]

Suppose you own a piece of property somewhere and you have no desire to sell it to another party. You don't want to be the owner either because you don't want to pay taxes on it. Is it possible to get rid of the land in such a way that it gets turned back to the city or county?

I realize most people wouldn't want to just give away land, so maybe this is a hypothetical question, but I am still curious on what the answer is.

 

[ElFenix]

<i'm not your lawyer the following is neighborly general knowledge and not representation>

stop paying taxes and get a tax suit....

if you just want to gift it i'm sure you can. to do it proper you may have to contact a lot of different offices, but the city/county attorney is probably a good start.

you could probably just file a quitclaim deed in the county records with the county as the grantee.

</i'm not your lawyer the preceding was neighborly general knowledge and not representation>

 

[RavenSEAL]

There wouldn't happen to be any bodies "buried" in this land would there?

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Just deed it back to the city/county whatever. Most places have a land-grant process.

 

[caddlad]

Abandoned property will be sold at a tax auction.

Gifting is a better idea.

 

[Eli]

1) I'll give you $1,000 for it.

2) Where is it? lol

Don't give it back to the city. That seems silly. If you care about what happens to the property, why not just keep it? It seems to me that an individual party would be more likely to do the "right thing" than the city would.

 

[Riceninja]

our founding fathers slaughtered indians for the land, and now you just want to hand it back?

 

[IronWing]

Not paying taxes should take care of the ownership problem however:

If there are any environmental concerns present on site such as hazardous wastes, solids wastes, nuisance weeds, mosquito factories, country music, etc. the local government (county, city) could come after you for cleanup costs regardless of tax liens. In the case of any hazardous wastes found on the site CERCLA (Superfund law) liability would follow you into the afterlife. Note that even if the waste dumping occurs after you "abandon" the property you could still get nailed as long as the property is in your name.

Selling it or giving it away would be a cleaner break.

 

[Zorkorist]

Yeah, selling it is the best way to abandon land.

Sell it to a homeless guy for $5 (it's important to get a payment.)

Take a picture of him with the deed and you with $5.

-John

 

[a123456]

Just file a quit claim deed and deed it away.

 

[skyking]

quit paying taxes and it will be sold by the city/county. That is where we got our vacation property, in a tax foreclosure sale.

 

[weadjust]

I would ask the adjoining property owners if they want it. If yes give them a quit claim deed.

 

[a123456]

Problem with just not paying taxes is that you're still liable for any stuff that happens on it and it takes a long time for the government to get around to selling the land for unpaid taxes.

 

[HeXen]

Donate it. To a church,school..etc and get tax credit

 

[AreaCode707]

Where is this land, or is it a hypothetical question?

In Washington state there's a setup where you can get a piece of property certified as kind of "replacement land." It means that the land will be preserved in a natural state. Each piece of property is worth x credits and a development company will buy those credits from the city/state/county in trade for permission to develop somewhere else. You could consider doing something like that.

If you're seriously not using it and don't want to sell, go find someone on craigslist who wants a place to park their RV. That's what I'm considering doing on some property we bought that we now have no plans for. Brings in a few hundred a month, enough to cover taxes at least.

 

[tcsenter]

our founding fathers slaughtered indians for the land, and now you just want to hand it back?

Yeah, and the Indians slaughtered other Indians for it.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Donate it to a nearby university on the terms that they build housing for female students there

 

[Matthiasa]

Donate it to a nearby university on the terms that they build housing for female students there

I like the way you think.

 

[Taejin]

just tap it for mana

 

[Mike Gayner]

OK a lot of weird answers here. In reality if you ever wanted to give up your land you could just vest it in your local government (council or whatever), in which case you get some control over how it's used, eg vest it under the condition it becomes reserve land.

 

[highland145]

Donate it. To a church,school..etc and get tax credit

this.

 

[highland145]

Yeah, and the Indians slaughtered other Indians for it.

And the dinosaurs ate dinosaurs way before that. Vicious cycle.

 

[Vette73]

Let me guess, its detroit. I bet you have to pay someone to take it.