In my case the lot was a strip adjoining my land that had been dedicated 70 years ago for a private drive to access several lots behind mine built on 65 years ago.The county would routinely sell
this strip for back taxes (its not even on my tax bill) and unsuspecting buyers would find out;
Interest incurred on indebtedness has historically been deductible, (although the deduction of «personal» interest was largely eliminated in 1986), and in the 1950s a type of «leveraged insurance» transaction began being marketed that permitted an insurance owner to in effect deduct the cost of paying
for insurance by (1) paying large premiums to create cash values, (2) «borrowing» against the cash value to in effect
strip out the large premiums, and (3) paying deductible «interest»
back to the insurer, which was in turn credited to the policy's cash value as
tax - deferred earnings on the policy that could fund the insurer's legitimate charges against policy value
for cost of insurance, etc..