When a state's tax foreclosure notice statute and the county's practice do not line up

Reading a state's tax foreclosure chapter next to a county treasurer's own procedure sheet often turns up a mismatch on who gets served. The statute typically lists record owner, mortgagees of record, and anyone with an interest appearing in the record. A county's procedure sheet often just describes mailing to the address on the tax roll and publishing. Those are not the same population, and whether the narrower practice satisfies the statute is a question for a lawyer licensed in that state, not something to settle by reading the two documents side by side. What matters to a certificate holder is who carries the consequence of a defect. In some states the county's notice work is what ripens a certificate into a deed, and defects in it are the county's problem. In others the certificate holder does the noticing, or has to prove the county's was adequate, and a due process challenge years later can land on the certificate holder's title. That creates a real split in practice. Some investors treat the county's stated procedure as sufficient, on the theory that it has run hundreds of times a year and survived challenges. Others do their own record search and supplemental mailings on every certificate they intend to foreclose, at real cost, on the theory that a title that can be insured later is worth more than the interest given up. The cost side is not trivial. A title search plus certified mailings can run a few hundred dollars per parcel, which eats a meaningful share of statutory interest on something like a 1,400 dollar certificate. All of this varies by state, which is most of the reason the question stays open.