That sort of mess is all to common!! When my brother was in Kansas, trying to sell my Mother's house about 15 years ago, he called and said there was a lien on the house over unpaid property taxes of 4 cars owned by my ex-wife! ONE of those cars was a 1975 VW Rabbit that we had owned together....15 years before!~!!!! When it died, she just parked to behind the house and let it rust and ignored notices..for 15 years.
Now I managed to convince them that I had never even SEEN those other 3 cars, but since my name was on the title of the VW, my MOTHER'S house was hostage. As you might guess, I paid a couple hundred rather than to hold up the sale by tracking down and arguing with ex-wife....THEY could not be bothered locating her...right in the same town... and getting her to deal with HER taxes....

ah, well....