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Years ago, I purportedly received an inheritance “property” from a distant relative. The property is a very small undivided fraction of a very small lot. The land is essentially worthless (tax bill due is $70) but the county still sends a tax bill.

I do not believe I am the lawful owner of the property, but the county sends dunning letters threatening foreclosure. What effect would a foreclosure on such property have on my otherwise exceptional credit rating? Would a dispute be effective?

There is quite a big difference between a lender-initiated foreclosure on a loan you took out and a real estate tax foreclosure. Let’s start with this issue.

When you own a piece of property and take out a loan, the lender has all your information, including your Social Security number. That same lender will report any defaults on your loan to the credit reporting bureaus. If that lender has to foreclose on the loan, that lender certainly will report the foreclosure to the credit reporting bureaus.

It’s those reports from a lender to the credit reporting bureaus that do the most harm because negative information on your credit history hurts your credit score. On a secondary level, you have information from public sources on items that can and do affect your credit. So if you have lawsuits against you to collect money or judgments filed against you of money you owe, those lawsuits and judgments can show up on your credit report and affect your credit.

You have an interesting situation. You “inherited” a small interest in a property and you probably had the right to disclaim the inheritance but didn’t take any action to disclaim the interest given to you. You’d have to talk to an estate attorney where the property is located to see if you can still disclaim your interest in the property. If you can disclaim the interest, you have a better case to claim that the property is not yours, you don’t owe the real estate tax collector any money and you would have no reason to worry about any adverse issues on your credit history.

If you had the ability to disclaim your interest and failed to do it, you may have become the owner of that share of the property whether you wanted to or not. Having said that, it isn’t always possible for credit reporting bureaus to track all tax foreclosures and other property issues back to a specific individual, particularly when real estate tax records don’t have a Social Security number link to them.

We’d suggest you pull a copy of your credit history for free from one of the three major credit reporting bureaus. You can get a copy from <a href="http://www.annualcreditreport.com/">www.AnnualCreditReport.com</a>. You shouldn’t have to pay anything or give any credit card for the report. You may get offers, but you don’t have to accept them. At some point, you will go through a series of questions and can end up downloading a copy of your credit history from one or all three of the major credit reporting companies. You can get one free copy from each of them per year.

If your report shows a tie between the property and your name, you’ll know that the credit reporting companies have connected you to the property and will report the tax foreclosure under your name. If the reports have no tie between the inherited property and your name (or you don’t see the property listed in any place on the report), it’s likely that the credit reporting companies haven’t tied the property to your name and the foreclosure may not come up on your credit history in the future.

On final thought: If the tax foreclosure does come up on your credit history, you may be able to send a letter of explanation to any future lender that may want to give you a credit card or loan and explain to them that you never wanted the property, never had a responsibility for the property and never paid any expenses relating to the property. This 100-word explanation can be added to your credit report, and all future creditors will see it.

Ilyce Glink is the creator of an 18-part webinar and e-book series called “The Intentional Investor: How to Be Wildly Successful in Real Estate,” as well as the author of many books on real estate. She also hosts the “Real Estate Minute” on her <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/ExpertRealEstateTips">YouTube channel</a>. Samuel J. Tamkin is a Chicago-based real estate attorney. Contact Ilyce and Sam through her Web site, <a href="http://www.thinkglink.com/">ThinkGlink.com</a>.

Catch up on some of Ilyce and Sam’s previous columns:

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2015/10/28/how-to-contest-the-tax-assessment-on-your-home/">How to contest the tax assessment on your home</a>

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2015/10/14/how-to-handle-taxes-after-a-foreclosure/">How to handle taxes after a foreclosure</a>

<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2015/10/07/when-is-it-time-for-developer-to-cede-control-of-condo-board-to-homeowners/">When is the time for developer to cede control of condo board to homeowners?</a>

Ilyce Glink and Samuel J. Tamkin

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