<prompt> Human: Not sure where to start so I will just start from the beginning, I apologize if this is jumbled but my wife and I are beside ourselves right now and could use some advice.Today while helping my mother in law move from one of her properties into another my wife and I found out that she has not paid taxes on two of her housing properties she owns 4 in total for the last 3 years and has no plans to pay them. She was moving out of one of those houses and into one that is paid for. The other house is currently occupied by my sister in law, her boyfriend of ten years, and their two children. My mother in law has allowed them to live rent free for the last five years and has been telling them that the houses taxes have been paid. As we found out today they have not and my mother in law had no intentions of telling them.In the State of Arizona, where we live, the tax lien on a property can be purchased after two years of unpaid taxes, both houses have already been sold and on May 2 the foreclosure process will begin. My mother in law has no intentions of paying the taxes to bring either house current and does not care that her family will be kicked out of the house.Obviously, we told my sister and she was distraught. She and her boyfriend have offered every year to buy the house or to pay the taxes and every time my mother in law has told them no. Now they have little more than a week to figure out their issue. We looked up the tax information on the AZ tax assessor website and found the back taxes information, the lien sale information, and calculated the total we would need to stop the process. It is roughly 3,000 total for the three years of back taxes and to repay the lien sale plus interest from the sale. The amount is minuscule and they have no issues paying it. However, my mother in law will probably not pay the taxes on the house ever again. Is it worth it for my sister in law to wait out the two years and to purchase the lien on the house or is there another way they can protect themselves from being out on the street?  <response>: My mother in law has allowed them to live rent free for the last five yearsSounds like they got an amazing deal. Did they save all of the money that they would have been paying in rent? If so, they should easily be able to find a new place and not be out on the street. 