This Web Site was put together by E. Ray Smyth, a 72 year old - 41 year resident of Titusville, Florida.

It came about as a result of a 500 percent property tax increase on 2.44 acres out in the boone docks with no satisfaction coming forth from the property appraisers office.

A portion of Ray's experience with Ad Volurem Taxes was obtained in the early eighties by being involved with the development of an 83 acre sub-division near Mims, Florida where he experienced the transition of the land being taxed on an agriculture bases to plating and then to a single family residential base.

Based on a friends advice, at the 1993 Brevard County Tax Certificate Sale, Ray purchased 171 tax certificates and watched the progression of the retrieval of certificates to the 3 years required to force the property to auction to the 7 year period when all entitlement is lost, thereby loosing the funds expended. Afterwards, he experienced the "Force to Sale" procedure and auctioning off of the property.

In the year 2000, there remained sixty eight (68) tax certificates on property no one was willing to pay the taxes on for 7 years, even though they had faced loosing their property.

Ray had been told, you seldom obtain property from the tax certificates and his only reason for investing in tax certificates was the interest return on investment.

Ray had no desire to own any of the properties but sadly, he learned there was some hazards because the state sells tax certificates on absolutely worthless properties.

He had assumed, if a property was taxed then there had to be some value to the property because after all the word Ad Volurem is a Latin term meaning "According to Value" and is actually defined as such in the "Manual of Instructions for Property Appraisers" required by Florida State Statute 195.062

A review of the 68 properties revealed that only 6 of them held out any faint possibility of recovering part of Ray's loss and the rest were not worth putting any additional funds into.

It was discovered that the other 62 properties were retention ponds, parking lots, out parcels, common areas and totally worthless except to the people using the parking lots or the retention ponds servicing sub-divisions. There was even a few small narrow strips along the side of US-1 which were absolutely worthless.

Yet, the property appraiser appraises and the tax collector bills the non existing owner every year and when the taxes are not paid the tax certificates are sold year in and year out over and over and over again to ill advised or naive people like Ray.

What happens is, the developer/s buy the property, plats the land showing "Tract A" as "Reserved for Tenant Parking" and then sells all the townhouse as the case may be and then after all the towns houses are sold.. The "Tract-A" remains in the developers name who no longer has any interest or responsibility for the complex and guess what, the taxes don't get paid on the "Tract A - Reserved for Tenant Parking"

Same thing happens with retention ponds and has even occurred with swimming pools and recreational buildings.

NO PROBLEM - The Appraiser appraisers and The Tax Collector sells a Tax Certificate to some unsuspecting sole and they pay the taxes only to learn afterwards that the tax certificate and property are absolutely worthless.

AND, this is done each and every year over and over and over again.

Ray considers this a state run land scam, not much different from those developers who in previous years were put in jail by the State of Florida for operating unscrupulous land scamming schemes.

Let's repeat it - The definition of Ad Volurem is:.. "According to Value"

If there is NO Value there should be NO Tax and thus NO Tax Certificate sold on worthless property.

Ray choose to Force to Sale the 6 feasible looking properties which required buying up the other six years of taxes with the interest plus paying the advertising cost and county fees. He did so only in the hopes of the properties selling at auction and reducing his loss incurred by the 68 tax certificates.

State Statues say the auction will take place in a reasonable time after it is requested and Ray's not sure what that means because he waited 18 months for the auction to take place.

Approximately 100 people attended the auction and only 2 of the 6 properties sold and they both sold for one (1) dollar above the minimum bid required to pay the taxes, interest and fees.

After the auction, it was announced the successful bidders should come forward and fill out a card on how they wanted the deed titled.

Ray went up and requested one of the cards but, was told he didn't need one because no one bid on his properties and Ray explained when he paid the $1,000.00 fee to bid at the auction in 1993 he casual filled out the bid card E. Ray and Jackie A. Smyth but, his wife's official name was Jacqueline which they used on all important or official papers and now he would like the deeds to reflect Jacqueline like all their other deeds and records.

Ray was told this was according to state law and he asked to see such a dumb state law. The law reads "if the property is not bid on at the auction it shall be struck off to the certificate holder"

Ray saw no trouble with the law except he wanted the recorded deed to read E. Ray and Jacqueline A. and not E. Ray and Jackie A. But, alas no success even after he went to the supervisor of recording.

Being the stubborn Irishman he is, Ray went to see the county attorney and the attorney said he would look into it but, on the surface he didn't see any reason why the deed could not read Jacqueline A.

3 months went by and having not heard anything, Ray again contacted the county attorney and the attorney said he thought that had been taken care of and would look into it.

3 more months went by and Ray again checked with the attorney and learned he was sick in the hospital and would be out of the office for another month or two. After nearly a full year had gone by Ray received a letter from the attorney which to him stated the tax deeds could be made out according to his wishes.

So, Ray goes to the county recording office and showed them the letter and said he would like to pay for the recording and get the deeds to the property.

Ray was informed the letter did not say what he thought it said and the deed could only be issued as Jackie A. and not Jacqueline A.

Ray was so torqued he left and went to see the Brevard County Clerk who also could see no reason why the deed could not say Jacqueline A. and he agreed to go over and tell the Supervisor of Recording to issue the deeds in the name of E. Ray and Jacqueline A.

Upon arriving back at the recording office which is on the other side of the court house, The Recording Supervisor had left work an hour early and was not available.

At this point Ray threw up his hands, threw in the towel and told the bureaucrats to issue the damn Tax Deed in any name they wanted too. Just get them issued.

So, the tax deeds were issued to E. Ray and Jackie A. Smyth. and Ray was allowed the privilege of paying two years back taxes for the 2-1/2 years it took the county to have the auction sale and get the deeds recorded. In other words Ray paid taxes on the property the two years it was in the hands of the county.

Three years after the property was recorded, Ray had a chance to sell one of the parcels only to learn Title Insurance could not be issued for a period of 4 years after issue of the tax deed due to state statutes.

Ray was told he could obtain Title Insurance if he ran an ad in the paper and went before a judge. Ray didn't understand that because that was the exact same thing he had already done to force the auction sale.

This being the case, Ray wants to know why he is required to pay taxes on the property for this four year period and why are the taxes increased during this same period.