[Hodar]

The county was selling the condo because, seven years ago, Dotson failed to pay one $546.81 tax bill

And we are then lead to believe that in the past 7 years he was unable to pay his tax? That this was a surpise to him, that no one warned him that he could lose his home?

Sanity check ... minimum bid was $4,287 his yearly tax bill is $546.81. Assuming that taxes do actually increase, and there are penalties assessed for non-payment of taxes lets do some math.

$4287 tax bill/$546.81 tax per year means that he is behind in taxes 7.84 years. Or, this man has refused to pay taxes for the past 7 years. What did he expect.

[ivegotabrain]

When he bought the condo, the 2nd half of the tax bill was sent to the former owner. Only one delinquent notice is sent. After that there is apparently a small notice on property tax statements that past tax is due.

This is all explained in some detail in the article.

[TankerKC]

Thanks for the math, but here it is from the article:

$4,287 -- enough to pay back taxes, interest, penalties and the costs of selling the property.

It doesn't appear to be 7.84 years of unpaid taxes. And, no, this probably wasn't a surprise to the old guy, but it is sad just the same.

[IYAS9YAS]

You are not quite correct. He could have missed one bill and never gotten out of hot water. If he paid regularly he would still lose to interest and penalties. I'm betting the biggest chunk is penalties.

Most systems are set up as thus: missed payment + interest and penalties...

Make payment: Interest is paid first, then penalties, then tax

Pay only the tax due, then interest and penalties get paid, the tax does not and continues to collect interest.

I've seen it happen. It sucks.

[MEGoody]

The $4,287 was $546.81 in taxes plus interest and penalties. Remember, this guy is elderly. We don't know what type of fixed income he was living on. He may have missed paying the taxes 7 years ago for whatever reason (had to buy medicine instead of paying the taxes or whatever). Once he missed it, he just never seemed to have the money to catch them up.

There is also the possibility that the old fella was a bit senile and hadn't understood any notices he had received in the mail. He may have thought they were junk mail.

Spend time with some 85 year old folks. Once you've done that, you'll easily see how this could happen.

[Redcloak]

Perhaps he was a "sovereign soup du jour" citizen, or whatever it is that those tax-dodgers call themselves.

[mathluv]

I actually heard about this on doug Stephan (sp?) show this morning on the way to school. Accordingly, the tax bill goes back to when he purchased the condo. He has paid all of his tax bills, including one just four months ago. No one at the tax office ever mentioned the old tax.