at every level of government...
never resting or relenting!
SO, my own personal story with government ineptitude.
When my FIL passed away in 2016 his wife did a quit-claim transfer (deed) to his four children for the oil and mineral rights of his property in rural Ohio. We started paying property taxes on our share. It was small, as nothing was being produced.
Nothing has ever been produced, and we've been approached constantly on selling these rights, along with a share my wife has of her grandfather's original estate.
In the research the potential buyer discovered that my FIL never actually owned unique oil & mineral rights. His property, which he owned, was part of his father's farm which was divided up between himself and his 11 siblings back in the 1960's. But his father (my wife's grandfather) retained the mineral rights. Those rights passed, per stirpes, to all of his 12 kids, or their heirs, in 1978 when he died. Apparently my FIL thought he had the rights on his property, but he did not.
The county just confirmed this is the case... and then said...
(1) No they will not give us a refund for paying property taxes that we did not owe for 9 years and
(2) They will still send us the bill for the said taxes even though they just confirmed we don't own the oil & mineral rights being taxed.
THIS is why most people despise government at all levels and the incompetent morons employed by those governments!!!
I'll be firing off a letter shortly to let them know to go pound sand and that we will no longer be paying said tax bills. What are they going to do - put a lien on property we don't own?
