Jim Boerner, a disabled veteran in Mesa, Ariz., recently landed in the headlines after losing his home over $236 in unpaid property taxes. Boerner had tried to pay off his property tax debt to the county but was given wrong information and therefore failed to save his home from the auction block. An investor bought ...
One evening several years ago, someone smashed the passenger window of my unattended, worn-down car and stole several items. I was frustrated to find a damp car seat covered with broken glass. But when I realized that the few stolen items included a small, unlabeled leather-bound Bible that held sentimental value for me, I felt ...
Six years ago, Erica Perez and her father, Romualdo, purchased a small, $60,000 apartment complex in Detroit. They were pursuing their American dream. Romualdo has family in Detroit, so part of his retirement plan was to fix up the complex, along with a small home next door, and spend his golden years with his family, ...
Rose Knick, who lives on her farm in rural Pennsylvania, didn't initially set out to overturn a decades-old Supreme Court precedent or to help property owners across the country. She just wanted justice when town officials threatened her with crippling fines. But as time passed, she found a greater purpose in her struggle: setting a ...
Today, the Supreme Court gave property owners everywhere a major victory, overturning a 34-year precedent that has robbed countless individuals of their property rights. And you have an unassuming woman in rural Pennsylvania to thank. In a 5-4 opinion on Knick v. Township of Scott written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Justices held that ...
A few years ago, my husband and I rented a car while visiting Italy. We had great fun driving to small towns off the beaten path. But about six months after we returned, I received a $250 ticket in the mail for accidentally driving onto a "locals only" road. If we had received the ticket ...
PLF client Uri Rafaeli accidentally underpaid the property taxes on his Southfield Michigan house by $8.41. So Oakland County took Rafaeli's house to collect on the small debt. The County also took PLF client Andre Ohanessian's 2.7 acres of valuable land in Orchard Village to collect a $6,000 debt. The County sold both properties and ...
During the last recession, Gary Guidotti, a 78-year old electrician in Cascade County, Montana, fell behind on his property taxes. Under Montana's tax law, the county took his home because of the $1,125 tax debt and sold it to investors for pennies on the dollar. Guidotti lost everything while investors reaped a windfall—taking absolute title ...
When Wayside Church fell behind on its 2011 property taxes on a parcel that the church had used as a youth camp, Van Buren County took the youth camp property and sold it for $206,000 to pay the church's $16,750 in taxes, penalties, interest, and fees. Similarly, the County kept the surplus proceeds—$189,250 more than ...
In 2014, Uri Rafaeli was shocked to learn that his local government seized his $60,000 rental house to collect an $8.41 tax debt. Rafaeli had paid all his 2012 and 2013 property taxes, and first part of his 2014 obligation. But he had mistakenly underpaid his 2011 taxes by a few dollars. The county foreclosed ...
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