Our late parent's house is behind on taxes in Georgia. What do we do?

The county bills whoever owned the house on January 1, so the bill keeps going to your parent's name. Every letter before a sale goes there too, often to an empty house or a mailbox nobody checks.

Many families first hear about it when a stranger calls, because the sale ad runs in the county paper and investors read it. By then the date can be weeks away. If that is where you are, the most useful thing today is a phone call to the tax commissioner.

In Georgia the tax lien sits on the house itself, and it ranks ahead of other liens. It doesn't matter that the owner has passed or whose name is on the deed. If the taxes stay unpaid, the county can sell.

A tax sale doesn't fix the family's paperwork, either. The Georgia Heirs Property Law Center notes that a tax sale buyer gets the house with the same deed problems it had on the day of the sale.

Look for the sale list on the tax commissioner's site, or call and ask. Ask when the sale is, what the payoff is good through that date, and what form of payment they take.

Most counties sell on the first Tuesday of the month, after the house runs in the paper for four weeks. If the ad is already out, the sale is likely the next first Tuesday. If you only have a letter, bring it to the phone call, since it has the parcel number the office will ask for.

The call goes faster if you have a few things in hand. You don't need all of them, and the office can look the house up by its street address.

Your first question is often: can I pay this with no court papers? Before a sale, counties do take money from people who are not the owner. Henry County's guide says the owner or anyone with a stake in the house may pay before the sale. Call your county and ask what it needs, since each office sets its own rules on this.

Paying does not make you the owner, or give you a bigger share. The Georgia Heirs Property Law Center says so. Still, if one of you pays, write down who paid and how much. Families often settle that money out of a sale later.

To sell the house or sign for it, someone usually has to be named by the probate court first. That step can take weeks. So if the sale is close, paying the taxes often has to come first, and the estate can follow.

A tax sale doesn't wait for everyone to agree. Any one of you can call the tax office for the date and the payoff, and one person can pay to stop the sale. That buys the family time to talk, or to go to probate court, before the county makes the choice for you.

If the rest of the family won't help pay, keep receipts. Send the others a short note of what you paid and when. That note will count later, when the house is kept or sold.

After a regular sale, Georgia lets anyone with a stake in the house buy it back, and that can include an heir. You have at least 12 months, and during that year the bidder can't move in or collect rent. The price is the winning bid plus 20 percent, plus some costs.

In a county that sells through court, such as Henry, the window is 60 days. Heirs who take the owner's place can redeem in that time by paying the minimum bid into the superior court.

If the bid was more than the taxes, the county holds the money left over. Some counties let heirs file for it directly, and others want estate papers first.

Money is where most families get stuck. A house with back taxes often has more bills behind it, such as a loan, a water bill, or work nobody has done. Before the family picks, it helps to know what the house might sell for and what it would take to keep it.

Georgia Property Co. works with families holding a parent's house with back taxes. We can look up the tax bill, the sale date, and who the county shows as owner, come see the house, and talk through keeping it or selling. If the family chooses to sell to us, we can pay the back taxes at closing, ahead of the sale when the timing allows.