The letter that I mentioned that I received them wanting to give me $1,000 for 1/2 the house do rep

This sounds like a situation where you should be very careful before signing anything or accepting the $1,000 offer. If you are a legal owner of the property, an attorney representing an LLC generally cannot simply decide on his own what your share is worth or force you to accept an offer because the LLC paid property taxes. The tax payments may create a claim against the property or affect the accounting between the owners, but that depends on the title, ownership agreement, and circumstances. Since you've received a written demand with a 10-day deadline and a threat of legal action, I would not ignore the letter. I also wouldn't negotiate or sign a deed, release, or settlement without having a Texas real estate attorney review the documents first. Gather the deed, any ownership agreements, property-tax records, and the letter you received. An attorney can determine what ownership interest you actually have, whether the LLC has a valid claim for reimbursement of taxes, and what your options are if they pursue a lawsuit. Because this involves a potential lawsuit and ownership of real property, this is one of those situations where getting legal advice before responding could save you a lot more than $1,000. Juan Picos Real Estate Agent JohnHart Real Estate

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You need to understand your ownership interest. Does your title work describe you as the sole owner or were/are there tenants in common? Could there have been unpaid taxes that resulted in a tax sale? If so, it's unlikely that the person who paid them would contact you, because the COUNTY is the one sending notifications. In addition, TX is a redeemable deed state, so you'd have the right to redeem, assuming this was all legit. Talk to a lawyer before you do anything else. Bring any and all documents & letters when you meet the lawyer. Good luck!

Mary, Alla is right and I want to put an exclamation point on it: do not reply to that letter, do not sign anything, and do not call this man back yourself. Get a Texas real estate attorney to read the actual documents this week. I answered your earlier question about someone selling half of a house, and this letter tells us more about what is probably going on. Let me lay out what I would want to know, because when you sit down with an attorney these are the questions that will get you an answer fast. The most likely explanation is that this LLC acquired an ownership interest in your property from someone else. That usually happens one of two ways. Either an heir or relative with a fractional interest in the property sold their share, often for very little, or the company paid delinquent property taxes and is claiming some right arising out of that. His mention of paying 5,000 in taxes points toward the second, or toward a mix of both. Those two situations are not the same and they do not lead to the same outcome, which is exactly why you need someone to look at the paperwork rather than guess. Here is what to gather before the appointment: Pull the deed records for your property at the Dallas County Clerk. You are looking for anything recorded in the last few years that you did not sign, including a deed from a relative, an assignment, an affidavit, or a lien. This is public record and you can request it directly. Get your property tax account history from the Dallas Central Appraisal District and the tax office. You want to see whether taxes were actually delinquent, whether someone paid them, and what the current status is. Keep the letter and the envelope. Do not throw away the postmark. Write down the date it arrived. Write down every prior contact, even if you think it was nothing. Two things about the letter itself. A 10 day deadline set by the other side is a negotiating tactic, not a legal clock. Your actual deadlines, if any exist, come from a court, and you would know because you would be served. And an offer of 1,000 for half of a house, paired with a threat to sue you for 2,500, is a very small amount of money attached to a very large amount of pressure. People send letters like that hoping the recipient signs quickly because the numbers sound small. Do not let the size of the numbers make this feel small. What is at stake is your interest in your home. On finding an attorney: call the State Bar of Texas Lawyer Referral and Information Service, and also check whether Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas can help you, since they serve Dallas County and handle homeowner and heir property matters. If cost is the barrier, say so when you call. Many of these matters are handled at low or no cost precisely because this pattern is common and it targets people who cannot easily hire counsel. I am a real estate professional and not an attorney, so I am not going to tell you what your rights are here. What I will tell you plainly is that this is a legal problem, not a real estate negotiation, and you should not be handling it alone. Duncanville is not my market, so I would not be the right person to represent you locally. I work the Palos Verdes Peninsula and the South Bay in Los Angeles. If after the attorney weighs in you want a Dallas-area agent involved, tell me and I will connect you with someone solid there. Please come back and let us know what the records show, Zoltan Peresztegi. Zoltan

Mary, please don't reply to that letter or sign anything until a Texas real estate attorney has read it. A stranger's LLC offering $1,000 for half of your house, then threatening to sue you for $2,500 over taxes he says he paid, is not something to sort out alone, and a 10 day deadline is there to make you rush. What I'd do this week is pull the recorded deed from the county clerk's office to see exactly whose names are on title, then ask the county tax office who has actually been paying on that account and whether anything is owed. Bring those records and the letter to a local attorney. It's possible he bought some kind of interest tied to the property, and it's also possible he's fishing. I'm licensed in California, so a Duncanville attorney is the right person to tell you what Texas law allows here. I'm sorry you're dealing with this. Alla Novytska, Realtor®, JohnHart Real Estate, DRE #02254775