Quote:
|
Originally Posted by ss_stealth
WHO grants the land? The town? What makes the town have the authority to grant land? Town's don't create the land. Do towns have permission from the creator of the land to grant the land to the rest of us?
Also, if I were to buy a house lot or parcel of land, am I purchasing a grant? I thought "grants" were free of charge. Or am I simply purchasing the "rights" to use the land?
Please do not take these questions as an attack, Palani, I'm just trying to figure out the logic here.
I'm beginning to think that the only way to truly get out of paying property tax is to convince the town to abolish the property tax all together.
|
The deed will (or should have) the phrase "granted, bargained and sold". The land is granted. No charge. Free. The appertances are bargained and sold. This would be the tile, septic, sidewalks, fences, trees, plastic flamingos, buildings et al. Any debt (bond issues, roads, sidewalk bonds, school bonds) would seem to be the buyers obligation. The only notification of the amount of these debts would be the amount of property tax the previous owner paid. This might be a good question to ask prior to buying.
George Gordon has a radio program in which he talks about a guy he knew who wanted shelter, had a plot of land and built the house on it for under $100 (never entered commerce, never needed a building permit, could not be given a street address, was never given a permit to occupy). Course the county/city didn't recognize this structure and so the lot property tax stayed the same. When the guy wanted to move no bank would finance the seller so it had to be done on a land contract.
While not eliminating property tax entirely there might be ways to limit it to something reasonable. I am considering an underground shelter based upon the $50 Underground House book. Things below ground aren't taxed.