More Unclaimed Funds on the County Level

In our wide hunt for unclaimed funds we presented a post that showed how to find the state  and federal unclaimed funds.  But did that fill the bill?  No. Because we found a whole new source. 

Besides money that you may be owed by a federal agency, state agency or which you might merely have innocently abandoned from a bank account or insurance claim, county government can apparently owe you money.  According to an article in the Toledo Blade, the Lucas County auditor now has an unclaimed funds website where you can search for monies owed from jury duty, court settlements, restitution, and from the county itself.  You can then apply for the money.  You need the form (and if you can't print one off the website, you can call 419-213-4406 and have them mail you a form.  Anyone who does not have access to a computer can call the same number and get help in searching for their claim. 

If you live elsewhere, it might be worth your while to see if your local county auditor has an unclaimed funds office for the same information.

Where to Find Government Property and Seizures for Sale and Auction?

You’ve read all the hype about buying stuff from the government—the apocryphal tales of great sports cars for $100 bucks or so, and wonder where to get them.  It’s easy, and like pretty much all government information, perfectly FREE.  The feds even make it easy for you.  Links to federal auctions and sales are all at one site—which includes links to goods by type (like medical equipment, commercial and residential real estate, etc.), rather than department, which makes it easier to find stuff you want. However, if there is a particular agency whose goods or seized things interest you, you can search by agency, too.
 You cannot register at the central site, but if you see something you want, there will be a link to a place to register, and usually a contact.  The agency rundown gives links where you can buy ANYTHING from a federal source, including Amtrack tickets, Smithsonian gift shop items, savings bonds, and flags that have flown over the capitol (they direct you to yourcongressperson).  If it’s federal and for sale, it’ll be here.
There’s also a link to the surplus sales sites for each ofthe states.  For things even closer to home, you have to check your city and county websites and think:  who grabs this stuff?  For instance in Toledo, there’s a site for vehicles impounded by the city’s police to be sold at auction,at the Toledo Police Department site.  In Lucas County, as in most counties, it’s the sheriff that seizes home for taxes, and there is a site for homes sold at auction which they have seized.  So those are probably the places to go in your own city and county for seized property.

Are There Any Places Where They are Giving Away Free Land?

In the 19^th century, the federal government decided to settle vast stretches of the west with people other than Indians by homesteading, or giving away land in exchange for continuous settlement.  While it was free, settlers only gained permanent ownership by living and working the land for five years.  It’s estimated that 2 out of 3 people washed out and went home.  When I was a young librarian in the 1980s, we still got calls from patrons asking us if the feds still did this.  They officially killed this program in 1976, but the odd American community still has miniature versions of it.

What made me think of it was Sandusky, Ohio’s Mow to Own program.  Essentially, if you take care of an abandoned lot next to your property for one to two years, it’s yours.  The city auditor’s office comes around to confirm that you are holding up your end.  If so, you could have extra space for a garden, shed, or parking at the next family event, while the city is relieved of the expense of maintaining abandoned property.  Mansfield, Ohio is considering the same thing. 

It seems that whenever there are not enough people, or too much unused land to profitably care for, governments try to find ways to sop up the overflow.  Often, this is done with land banks where cities gather up abandoned property to strategically develop and sell or give to nonprofits to develop. Among the places in the U.S. to do this are Lucas County (Toledo), Ohio and Genesee County (Flint), Mi.  For a study of some other cities that  have created land banks, see this from the University of Michigan.  However they do NOT give away land.  However, some small towns in the Midwest, you can still get free land, and the Center for Rural Affairs keeps an up-to-date list.  Organic Gardening also did an article on this. 

Among big cities, Buffalo, New York has an urban homestead program that allows totally unwanted property—where no one has attempted to buy it—within certain neighborhood boundaries of the city—to be sold for $1 plus closing costs.  It’s one of the last examples of cities trying to deal with abandonment this way.

Another Way to Receive Low-Cost Legal Help: the Pro Se Clinic

People are familiar with pro bono (donated) legal services, but there is another way to get low-cost legal help if you need it.  It's the pro se clinic, in which lawyers, law students or paralegals donate their services to help low-income people fill out the legal forms they need that help laypeople do their own footwork in court for a small fee, or free.

In a post a short while back, we discussed one of these types of pro se clinics: those that help ex-offenders fill out the paperwork to get their criminal records expunged or sealed.  However, there are clinics covering other work, too: in Lucas County, Ohio (Toledo), the Toledo Bar Association runs pro se clinics for Juvenile Court and family law and well as expungement, with plans to run them from guardianship and bankruptcy.  For more information on these, contact Pat Intagliata at 419-242-9363.  Since the help involved is direction on how to fill out and file forms, it is often restricted to uncomplicated cases.  For instance, the Lucas County Pro Se Clinic for divorce is only for cases where there are no minor children involved.  When things get complicated, clients are advised to get either a private or pro bono attorney.  In New York City, there are several projects being done for the elderly, incarcerated mothers, immigrants, the HIV positive, and in microenterprise by Volunteer Legal Services.

How do you find these in your area?  One place to look is the online directory of court pro se clinics.  These are run in the courts themselves (like a district federal court or bankruptcy, for instance).  Another is the directory of places to go for free/low cost legal help from the American Judicature Society.  You may ask the local legal aid office in your community.  You can also search google for "pro se clinic" (in quotes), and the name of your city or the type of law you are dealing with, such as bankruptcy or divorce.  Or, you could contact your local bar association. Another possibility is a local law school--sometimes, their students will fill out forms under the supervision of their professors.


***Important: Because a clinic is "pro se" doesn't necessarily mean it's free or low-cost.  "Pro se" just means that it helps you do your own legal work.  Commercial, for-profit companies may do these clinics, too.  When you contact and ask them, ask HOW MUCH it will cost you.  Don't assume it's free or low-cost.