So the township says they have no record and it must be off the tax roll. Green acres certainly knows they don't own it so that means Haines or some other large land owner isn't or doesn't have to pay taxes? UNBELIEVABLE!! What's the secret to getting your property off the tax roll and yet still own the property?
I finally found out by going through a back door. The adjacent lot is owned by a land conservation entity, and they helped me out. To show how complicated this is, I've included a snip from their email below. I'd rather not make it publicly known who owns it (hence the XXX below), if you want to know PM me.
"The property is privately owned. It’s currently owned by XXXX, which is a part of XXX.
Attached is the tax map, and two deeds that show the ownership of the property (Note: all publicly available docs. pulled from the county records). It’s tract #2 on the first, very long deed.
It’s understandable why the township & state folks had some trouble with this one. Their slow response was likely because they were initially stuck as to who owns this property. It’s—at least initially—not a straightforward question! And, unfortunately, that’s an error on our survey, showing that it’s state-owned. The deed book & page listed for Lot XX on the survey is also incorrect.
Fortunately (or unfortunately), we’ve worked in some rural areas in NJ where property ownership is at best convoluted and, at worst, unknown. Our staff is getting used to these kinds of difficult questions.
In this case, the property was mainly owned by XXX. (with two other entities involved—XXX and XXX—both on the second deed), then subject to foreclosure and Sheriff’s sale. Lot XX was part of a very large assemblage of lots and acreage. When that many lots are involved, the property tax record doesn’t list all the individual lots.
Please see the attached tax record for Bl. XXX, L. 11—Under addtl. lots, there’s a note that says in capital letters: “MANY SEE FILE”. That reference to “many” includes Lot XX.
Such type of note on the tax record usually means there’s some kind of paper record that lists all the lots in the County Clerk’s office. Absent a title search, it’s very hard to get access to those records. Best anyone can do is pull the deed from the public website (if it’s available), which in this case confirmed ownership of that lot and also the lot we’re interested in, Lot XX"