White House Press Secretary Avoids Foreclosure on D.C. Home

[kskiska]

Source: Fox

WASHINGTON — President Bush's press secretary has narrowly escaped homelessness after the District of Columbia declined to put her house on the auction block following her payment of a delinquent tax bill.

Dana Perino's house on Capitol Hill was to be "sold at public auction to the highest bidder" next week, The Washington Post reported Thursday. Perino was first alerted by the Post in August that her home was listed as ripe for sale by the city's Office of Tax and Revenue.

Perino told the Post that her mortgage company pays the city's property taxes, but "it was a mistake" that they hadn't paid the tab. The $1,921.86 bill was paid on Aug. 25, but as of this week the city still has Perino listed as owing $2,858.89 in back taxes.

She told FOX News that the matter has been cleared up.

"Both the mortgage company and the DC government have apologized to me for the inconvenience. There is no delinquency in my property taxes," Perino said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,424587,00.html

[skooooo]

1. well thank god for that..

I'll sleep better tonight!

:eyes:

[DefenseLawyer]

2. That sounds more fucked up than the Bay of Pigs

Too bad she doesn't know what that is.

[Plucketeer]

25. Did that involve lipstick???

OINK!

[Liberalynn]

3. Yeah I wonder how many "average citizens"

get to claim it was a "mistake" that they didn't pay their mortgage and how many would get a "pass."

[WriteDown]

8. Actually, its a lot....

Don't ever have your taxes or insurance escrowed if you don't have to. Mortgage servicers screw up the payment disbursements all the time.

[Liberalynn]

17. My apologies to her then.

Its just the Bushco group gets so many special favors extended to them, I thought this was yet another example.

[JDPriestly]

22. Maybe she opted out of escrow payments and forgot that she had

or did not realize that was the way her deal was structured. Common mistake.

[VWolf]

12. To be fair, it happened to me once

It never reached the point of foreclosure threats, however.

My mortgage company cleared it up rather quickly, albeit without apology.

[AndyTiedye]

33. It Was The Mortgage Company That Messed Up Here

This sort of thing is likely to become more common as the mortgage companies are getting squeezed financially.

[niyad]

4. indeed. it would have cost a fortune to have the place de-loused and exorcised

[liam_laddie]

23. Beyooteeful comment! n/t

[Politicalboi]

26. No Bobby Jindle

Gov of Louisiana can do the exorcism cheap.

[demnan]

5. Crooked Washington Mutual tried to pull that one on me

I had to call and fax myself to death to get them to pay those taxes.

[shraby]

6. Our taxes are included in our mortgage payment, and

we have the tax check sent to us when due, I then take it to city hall and pay the taxes. This way I know they are paid on time.

[WriteDown]

9. That is smart....

Many servicers won't do that though.

[shraby]

10. They gave us that option. We didn't

take it for our insurance, that's sent straight to our insurance company, but we get a notice and if there is a problem, I can go downtown to our agent and bounce it off his head.

[WriteDown]

13. Haha..

That is definitely a good thing. I have seen houses that went to tax sale and had to be bought back by the servicer due to their error. The most common error is sending the tax payment to the wrong address.

[WriteDown]

16. Haha...

Its not in Wamu's interest though to let your house be foreclosed on. The bureaucracy is what is responsible for these errors. Sometimes it boils down to a simple data entry mistake as well.

[yellowcanine]

34. Wash Mutual did it to me also. I thought I was the only one. Seems to be a pattern.

[fascisthunter]

7. bring back the guilotine...

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

11. McSame didn't pay property taxes on one of his San Diego

homes for 4 years, and nothing happened, nor did the press even take notice.

In my town, the Seattle Times fell all over itself to publish an article about Obama's unpaid college parking tickets the day after the story appeared in the AP, and never did publish a story about McSame's property taxes. Come to think of it, I don't think the AP even had a story about McSame's unpaid property taxes. You would almost think that the AP was being run by republican party sycophants.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Shows you what Faux News knows. It wouldn't have been a 'foreclosure', but a sheriff's

sale due to unpaid taxes. The city could have placed a lien on the mortgage for the amount of taxes due, but only a mortgage company can foreclose.

[Mesteryo]

19. you're somewhat wrong..

A sheriff auctioning off a property to pay undue taxes is a foreclosure. It's a judicial foreclosure as opposed to a strict foreclosure where a mortgage company does it.

[Mesteryo]

20. you're somewhat wrong..

A sheriff auctioning off a property to pay undue taxes is a foreclosure. It's a judicial foreclosure as opposed to a strict foreclosure where a mortgage company does it.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

15. is it too late to vote cage her?

eom

[Johnnyheadstone]

18. This is how those TV commercials work....

We have all seen them, the "buy a house for $300!" commercials....this is all they do, they sell you a past due property tax lien (usually 2 or more years behind depending on the state/municipality gets your tax roll on an auction)so essentially you pay the back taxes for a homeowner that can not afford them (and yes there are some places that real estate taxes are that cheap)then you file a tax lien on the property which takes first position over any other lien (including the mortgage(s) or any mechanics liens)

It sounds like a great get rich quick scheme (and it is) but I have personally seen families thrown out in the street and end up homeless because of it (and their 20 year old son was off fighting in Iraq at the time --- I literally went outside cried my eyes out) also it adds more bad debt to the banks balance sheet...another mortgage goes bad and the bank actually ends up going after the person who got tossed out because they have no recourse against the person purchasing the tax lien of course they can't pay so the bank fails and we all end up getting to share in the bail out.....

And who profits? The greedy bastard who literally screwed someone out of their house and a bank out of their (rightful) re compensation for the money they lent on the asset....

Its' time to change these laws, because the chips are so clearly stacked against the little guy (but it would have been funny to see the Republicans claiming everything was A-OK while their very own press secretary lost her house because of a tax roll sale.....)

And where is she living in DC with proper try taxes that cheap anyways??????

[MilesColtrane]

21. Lying just doesn't pay like it used to.

[harun]

24. It takes a very special person to work as Press Secretary for this Administration

One willing to say things like "There isn't an occupation of Iraq because they invited us".

Nuff said.

[RedSpartan]

27. Couldn't have happened to a nicer gal.

:sarcasm:

[Ian David]

28. She was sure she would have been Raptured by now. n/t

[underpants]

29. And here I thought she has already hit rockbottom

:shrug:

What would a perky little blonde do on the streets of DC???

[Stinky The Clown]

30. This happens more often than governments will ever admit

Probably there's really nothing afoot, nothing amiss, just the result of some stupid error or another. The only difference here is a 'famous' person was involved.

[booley]

31. Nice to know rich white women can still get a break

:sarcasm:

[badgervan]

32. 3 mil in back taxes?!

... how much does this woman make to lie on a daily basis?

[against all enemies]

35. Maybe she told the same bullshit to the bank she tells to us.

[eppur_se_muova]

36. Maybe she forgot how many homes she owned ?

:shrug: There's a lot of that going around.