hunting boarded up houses

[skydiv]

can someone here help me, how do I get pemission to hunt bourded up houses in my city? who do I contact? do I call city hall and what branch do i call? any help wpild be appriciated. thanks

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Register of Deeds . Give them the address and you can find out the owner.
Sometimes the City will have a online access for property tax assessment and you can enter the address there

 

[Monty]

I use to be the main guy who caused those old derelict houses to be boarded up in my City. The City itself never owned but very few of the houses rather just had tax liens on them for routine maintenance ( mowing, removing trash and boarding and securing). Some will eventually be torn down by the local government as they pose a nuisance. Most of them wind up going on the auction block for past liens, and are privately owned. Your County or Parish tax assessor will have records indicating not only the property owner but any other persons that have a pending claim on the property. Right now my City is buying up a large tract of old houses with federal and local matching funds, many are boarded up for an Urban Renewal project. A few will be owned by the local government if they are being torn down as a public nuisance. These are the only ones the local government will have the authority to grant permission to hunt. The problem is that gang bangers and meth cookers tend to break into these boarded up houses and conduct their illegal business. They pose a great danger to an unknowing treasure hunter. Be very careful how you approach them. I suggest you at least carry a cell phone and not to hunt them alone if you must. On the other hand, most of them are older homes and should have some silver coin if nothing else. Monty

 

[skydiv]

thanks for the great advice.

 

[kid iowa]

Are HUD houses open game also? There are quite a few empty ones around here, do we go through the same people to find out ownership, etc? Thanks in advance. Jim

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Every county has a register of deeds office ,which once given the property address ,they can tell you the owner. Its also on the property tax bill, which is open to the public. Try to gain online access if available in your county, like property assessment site .

 

[bk]

I use to be the main guy who caused those old derelict houses to be boarded up in my City. The City itself never owned but very few of the houses rather just had tax liens on them for routine maintenance ( mowing, removing trash and boarding and securing). Some will eventually be torn down by the local government as they pose a nuisance. Most of them wind up going on the auction block for past liens, and are privately owned. Your County or Parish tax assessor will have records indicating not only the property owner but any other persons that have a pending claim on the property. Right now my City is buying up a large tract of old houses with federal and local matching funds, many are boarded up for an Urban Renewal project. A few will be owned by the local government if they are being torn down as a public nuisance. These are the only ones the local government will have the authority to grant permission to hunt. The problem is that gang bangers and meth cookers tend to break into these boarded up houses and conduct their illegal business. They pose a great danger to an unknowing treasure hunter. Be very careful how you approach them. I suggest you at least carry a cell phone and not to hunt them alone if you must. On the other hand, most of them are older homes and should have some silver coin if nothing else. Monty

Good info Monty.
Will the Tax Assessor give that information to anyone who asks?

 

[Roadquest]

Kid, I don't think you will be aloud to hunt the HUD houses.

Roadquest

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Its public record so that means they will. Its really a good idea to get in good with the city assessor if you can. The one in my town always lets me know about empy house or ones that are going to be torn down and who to ask permission from . Of course it helps that he gets a Christmas basket full of Moonshine Jelly from me also......

 

[jrf30]

Are HUD houses open game also? There are quite a few empty ones around here, do we go through the same people to find out ownership, etc? Thanks in advance. Jim

HUD houses are owned by the federal government. If you search them they will consider it damaging government property, and since they are the federal government they call it a federal crime.

Even digging in the YARD is considered a crime to them. And I find it impossible to get permission from teh asset managers, because they won't tke the responsibility.

So, I'd say leave HUD houses alone. Not worth getting your name in the paper as an example. :-)

 

[jrf30]

Every county has a register of deeds office ,which once given the property address ,they can tell you the owner. Its also on the property tax bill, which is open to the public. Try to gain online access if available in your county, like property assessment site .

Most counties now have that information on the web. And the address is easy to find. For instance, I do some buying of properties in NAvajo county i nArizona and also in Collin county in TX. The addresses are:

http://www.co.collin.tx.us

and

http://www.co.navajo.az.us

Others use the same format. Not all, but over 70% of counties nationwide are not on board with that system (or so they say)

Good luck.

John

 

[Monty]

All vacant HUD houses will have a posted sign, usually on a window stating somethng to the affect that this is gov. property and trespassing is forbidden. I have hunted the yards, but never gone inside of one for obvious reasons. No one enforces the posting however, it is put there mostly to keep gangbangers out. I use to notify HUD all the time that someone had taken the door or kicked it in and it needed to be secured. Most of the time I had a devil of a time just getting someone to come out and take care of it. The Tax Assessor probably won't take the time to tell you who owns property but the tax roll is usually an open record and you can look it up on their plat maps. Monty

 

[daytondigger]

In my county the auditors website was easily located on-line via a search engine. Type in the address and I get owner's name address and year built. I know many people who just go for it. A couple instances where the cops came they just told them to leave.