Posted on 09/07/2013 11:27:30 PM PDT by RC one
On the day Bennie Coleman lost his house, the day armed U.S. marshals came to his door and ordered him off the property, he slumped in a folding chair across the street and watched the vestiges of his 76 years hauled to the curb.
Movers carted out his easy chair, his clothes, his television. Next came the things that were closest to his heart: his Marine Corps medals and photographs of his dead wife, Martha. The duplex in Northeast Washington that Coleman bought with cash two decades earlier was emptied and shuttered. By sundown, he had nowhere to go.
All because he didn’t pay a $134 property tax bill.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Just goes to show. You don’t really own your property.
Gee, who runs the District?
Doh!
It also goes to show to what lengths a tyrannical government will go to to squeeze the life blood out of its citizens when its failed policies finally catch up to it. and this is just the beginning of the fall. If you think it’s going to get better, you are deluded. This is why they need to disarm us and this is why we don’t let them. What good can a handgun do against an Army?
Part of the problem is that the sale isn’t drawing sufficient public attendance.
The tax sale to collect unpaid taxes should only focus on the unpaid debt, then return the balance of the sale to the owner.
Instead, it appears the winning bids at the tax sale are unduly low, giving the winner an exorbitant profit by flipping the property ASAP, and the value of the property is harvested by the tax sale bidder, without recourse of the original owner to collect his equity.
the owner, apparently, owned the house outright. The article says he paid cash for the house 20 years ago.
And where were his elected representatives?
Where was the DA? this is a crime.
Where is elder abuse services?
That was insane... the punishment was over the top.
What a pathetic article trying to blame the business people who bought the liens. This is an issue of the DC government and it wont be fixed because the reporter is either too biased or dumb to see the problem is the DC government.
Clearly the DC government does not care in the least what happens to these people. If they did they would require the business people who buy the liens to transfer everything above the amount of the lien and reasonable costs to the property owner. But instead DC only cares about getting more cash to buy votes. After all the property owners must be evil, they own property.
If I were that 76 years old man, I would have paid my property tax. Then I would not have lost everything dear to me through my own inattention or procrastination.
Sure, the story is sad, but it could have so easily been avoided. How many demands for payment did he ignore?
Punishment? Representatives? This was no punishment, it was just wolves dining on a sheep and the representatives are the wolves.
I’d have just killed them.
Agreed, but he is still liable for the tax lien.
The local government usually has mechanisms to enforce their property taxes by selling a deed to the property to collect taxes.
The tax lien is generally considered the primal lien on real estate.
As the full owner, he simply had a debt to be paid off.
The remaining equity in the house should be his property.
It appears he lost it because the winner of the tax sale, didn’t pay but a fraction of the real estate value. The government probably returned the balance of that sale to the original owner, but the balance wasn’t for the full market value, as the property was sold within months for hundreds of thousands more than the tax sale.
The local courts will likely enforce the sale as publicly valid, in order to remain solvent.
IMHO, his best recourse is a civil suit against the winning bidder for the balance of their sale minus the value of their work to sell the property.
In California, the state has the burden of proof for one year to show the taxes hadn’t been paid and the real value had been properly transferred.
The city, using armed and amrored agents of the government, stole a man’s private property, sold it to another individual or group of individuals, and then left the man homeless over a $134 debt. That is ****ing tyranny staring you right in the face my FRiend.
It could have been avoided if the house was in TX..If you're over age 65, they don't kick you out of your house for not paying your property tax..
The debt accrues with interest..If you don't pay it, and you die, your heirs can pay it. if they wish to retain the property.
Yes, but then you’d be responsible to pay off the fees for the burial permits. If you didn’t pay, then the IRS could audit you. ;^(
These crooks file their liens legally. But they work through loopholes and most of the homeowners didn’t know they owed the taxes. And if you did pay your taxes it’s your job to prove it. It’ll be like dealing with a debt collector. There’s nothing you’ll able to say that will convince them you’re telling the truth.
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