Posted on 05/09/2022 12:29:43 PM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
When Deborah Foss, a 66-year-old grandmother in New Bedford, Mass., bought her home in 2015, she expected it would be where she would live the rest of her life in comfort and security. But by February of this year, she had been forced from her home and is now reduced to living in her car.
What went wrong? With chronic health problems and living on a fixed income, Foss fell behind on her property taxes when she hit a rough financial patch. That’s when the city sold a $9,626 tax lien on her home to a private investment company. Under Massachusetts law, the lien gave the company power to take full title to her property when she didn’t pay her debt quickly enough. The company evicted Foss and quickly sold the property. Almost before she could grasp what was happening, she had lost her home and $210,000 in equity.....
It doesn’t have to be this way, which is why we’re fighting back in court. We’ve filed lawsuits in various states challenging the constitutionality of home equity theft as a violation of property rights protection under the Fifth Amendment. Courts in different jurisdictions disagree about whether it is constitutional, so it may require a Supreme Court decision to settle the question.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Meanwhile people continue to vote for more property taxes, especially if they don't own property.
I think proceeds over the tax liability go to the owner. The trustee of the sale takes about a 10% slice. Not sure what MA specifics are.
Folks pick up tax lien sales often, which basically wind up being auctions for the highest bidder. You’d typically get to inspect the property before bidding but no negotiation like with an ordinary sale.
Pay the property taxes. Tell the medicals to kick rocks.
My experience is that financially naïve people tend to pay the loudest voice rather than the most important bill. And old people rarely listen to their kids except to get scammed by them.
Sorry for her. She chose poorly. $9600 in delinquent taxes in six years?
She had other options, at least she would in a normal states. Taxachussets may not have been the wisest place for her to retire to.
Name of the company and name of the CEO? A personal and perpetual doxing event should be scheduled at his personal residence until the lady is paid for the value of her home!
The British at least have no pretense as to who owns your home because what we call ‘property tax’ they more accurately call ‘rent’.
“they take the whole enchilada.”
That is just so scummy and morally wrong. Property owner should get whatever is left after satisfying the tax debt and costs.
She lives in Massachusetts, not America so why should I give a damn
Really? And I suppose you support the rabid protesters outside the homes of our right wing supreme court justices.
The property tax was never meant to be levied on personal homes, thus the Homestead Exemption in most states.
And the original English Property tax derives from the Feud, where the large landowners owed protection to the farmers for their rents. IOW, it was a tax on production, which is essentially an income tax.
What we have now is a system that charges both. When the income tax was brought in, it should have replaced property tax in the States. There is no justification for both.
In most big states the Teachers Unions now control 1/2 or more of property taxes and agitate to keep the system in place. At no time in our history did anyone ever say that was the principal reason for property taxes, or that the schools somehow owned our property.
Abolition of property taxes on homestead land should be a major initiative of the Right. Outright abolition should be the goal: the Left uses property taxes to confiscate land and give it to themselves.
And income taxes should not be progressive. If any such taxes esist, they should be flat fees. No one sells a car on a progressive price scale based on income and government “services” should be the same.
The only rational tax that preserves property and income is an excise tax. The States United used to do that: tariffs and “imposts” were the main source of government revenue. When that was the case, the economy of the US soared.
Not it struggles as rampant taxation drags everyone down...except the tax eaters, who consume but produce almost nothing of value.
One solution to something like this would be for the state to just add the unpaid taxes to a lein on the house, so when the elderly person passes away, it is settled up at probate time. Some states do that for state medical assistance.
I don’t think this kind of thing should be allowed at all if it is your primary residence. Investment property, not so sure.
All I am saying is that we should not bring a water pistol to a gun fight.
Michigan is also guilty of this type of behavior.
Since the nation's founding, only (property) tax voters were allowed to vote.
In the early 1960s, they passed the 24th amendment, which allowed parasites all over the nation to vote.
They sold it as an anti-racism amendment, but what it really was was a Washington DC spending party forever amendment.
LBJ immediately recognized that you could bribe non taxpayers with taxpayer money, and by their votes be kept in power.
Exactly
Good point about the schools and the property taxes. I never looked at it that way, but you wised me up.
I agree with your sentiments. But I live in Texas and I know Texas laws also allow for private companies to buy tax liens and foreclose.
While that might seem harsh and unfair, it really does provide a benefit to the delinquent taxpayer. These private companies actually charge less interest than the fees and penalties the government collects from delinquent property taxes.
And because they make a major amount of money on it they have no reason to try to work with you like a bank would.
A bank will get whatever they are owed in a mortgage foreclosure and you get the rest.
As you can tell, not the case with taxes.
Here in Michigan we had a poor guy who lost his rental house over $8. No, I did not leave any digits off.
And of course they also have no reason to try to make sure you actually are informed of what you owe.
In fact they have every reason not to do so.
And they have every reason to over evaluate you home so your taxes go up. Which is what they did in Detroit.
It is a major racket and those people throwing stone are ignorant. The bureaucracy is actively working against you.
And you too will one day fall into it's jaws and wonder what happened.
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