Woman Loses Home Over a $362 Water Bill -- the Sneaky Way Investors Exploit Poor Homeowners

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



The Huffington Post Investigative Fund / By Fred Schulte and Ben Protess and Lagan Sebert

Woman Loses Home Over a $362 Water Bill -- the Sneaky Way Investors Exploit Poor Homeowners
Vicki Valentine lost the two-story brick row home after the city sold her debt to investors through a contentious and byzantine legal process called a "tax sale."

June 6, 2010 |


One raw day in early February, Vicki Valentine stood by helplessly as real estate investors snatched her West Baltimore home over what began with an unpaid city water bill of $362.

As snow threatened to fall, she watched a work crew hired by the new owners punch out the lock on her front door. A sheriff’s deputy was on the scene while Valentine and her teenage son piled whatever they could into a borrowed car.

Running out of time, Valentine scrambled to pack up clothing and mementos.The home had been her family’s for nearly three decades, and her father had paid off the mortgage in 1984. “It’s hard to say goodbye to this house,” she said. “It’s like someone forcing you out of something that belongs to you. I don’t get it.”

Valentine lost the two-story brick row home after the city sold her debt to investors through a contentious and byzantine legal process called a “tax sale.” This little-known type of foreclosure can enrich investors as growing numbers of property owners struggle to pay their bills.

These foreclosed homeowners are not the families making headlines for taking on mortgages they could ill afford. Families ensnared in the tax sale sometimes are unable to overcome relatively small debts owed to local tax collectors.

Rather than collect the overdue money they are owed, many local governments are selling tax liens. Buyers range from behemoths such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, and some regional banks and law firms, to small-fry investors lured by late-night television commercials promising quick riches. Investors generally bid in an auction for the right to collect delinquent taxes and other municipal debts on property owners, sometimes by paying only a few hundred dollars. When owners can’t pay, investors can pick up property at bargain prices. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/investigations/147118/woman_loses_home_over_a_%24362_water_bill_--_the_sneaky_way_investors_exploit_poor_homeowners/

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. OMG

the poor woman. This should not be allowed to happen. Thye should give her the house back.

[burnsei sensei]

2. It sounds like the house was bought

and paid for.

Quote:
Running out of time, Valentine scrambled to pack up clothing and mementos.The home had been her family’s for nearly three decades, and her father had paid off the mortgage in 1984. “It’s hard to say goodbye to this house,” she said. “It’s like someone forcing you out of something that belongs to you. I don’t get it.”
end quote.

If something is paid for, it's paid for.
It belongs to the woman.
When will ownership rights be respected?
The city owns only the water--- nothing else.
It does not own the home. The home was never the city's to repossess.
This should go to court as a class action lawsuit.

[Gormy Cuss]

5. Either MD doesn't have a homestead exemption or this family was unaware of it.

In many states there are protections against primary residences being seized by creditors.

[LiberalEsto]

10. Only the wealthy are allowed to own things

The rest of us are technically just renters and squatters. Keep in mind, too, that we don't own the mineral rights or airspace rights to your property. Any time the owners of those *rights* decide to exercise them, we are out of luck.

The world sucks.

[Capitalocracy]

17. I drink your milkshake.

Sad but true... I wonder where the property-rights-are-the-most-important-thing-on-the-goddamn-earth libertarians are at on this one.

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[MisterP]

22. I'm always reminded of that Libertarian high-up who worked for Wells Fargo as an enforcer,

kicking people out of their foreclosed homes (he got into the news by pulling a gun)

thing is, that story will never enter the orbit of those "end eminent domain and unlawful takings (i.e., any and all regulations applied to private land)" drips

[Stuart G]

3. K and R thanks for posting this.

[dickthegrouch]

4. Isn't there a prohibition somewhere against Cruel and Unusual punishment?

This sounds like theft, pure and simple.

Ms Valentine should file a lawsuit for 3x the value of the property plus punitive damages on the premise that the city is engaging in racketeering. Water bills are not taxes. Using a tax lien for a simple debt is conspiracy.

Jail the city treasurer, require disgorgement of all profits by anyone involved in this disgusting fraud.

[wolfgangmo]

6. But that will never happen in today's America.

The fact is that the crooks are now in control of everything.

It will only stop when enough of the crooks pay a high enough price. This is what I had in mind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOvH-7lcjb0&NR=1

[Macoy]

8. How can they live with them self??

This is appalling. How can anyone live with them self after making money this way? I know I could never destroy the lives of poor people, just to make a buck.


macoy

[awoke_in_2003]

12. the rich don't give a fuck...

except boosting their wealth. welcome to DU

[COLGATE4]

16. While that sounds satisfying

it doesn't work that way. The city has a lien on the property for unpaid water bills. The bill stays with the property, not necessarily with the owner (i.e. a new owner can be compelled to pay unpaid water bills owed by previous owners). If the water bills are unpaid, eventually the property can be sold at a tax sale, which is what happened here.

There are absolutely no legal grounds for Ms. Valentine to sue the city (or anybody).

[ColesCountyDem]

26. In IL, water bills are tax liens.

It depends on what your state law says.

[Blue_Tires]

7. I'm told the City of Virginia Beach did this frequently years ago...

for eminent domain purposes

[Jefferson23]

9. Incredible injustice! n/t

[jotsy]

11. Tapped out

was the title of a You-tube video about this very story. It drew 9 rec's and 15 comments when posted here at DU on May 18. I hope your resurrection of her story makes a bigger and better impact. Everybody who's anybody politically, whether local or long ranging, feels free to facilitate the fleece by virtue of their standing at the expense of the citizenry. If repetition is what it takes to bring this thievery to light, I'm happy to support it.


<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x466076>

edited because run on sentences are my nemesis.

[Joanne98]

13. OUTRAGE!

[4lbs]

14. $362 water bill? How much water is she using? Or was she like 6 months behind on paying it?

My water bill is just $60 for two months (billed every two months).

[SeattleGirl]

24. Maybe it was combined with other utilities. My water bill

also includes my garbage service bill.

[Optimistic]

15. This is why the Gov't will be overthrown some day soon

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. It's not the government that's behind this.

The idiot legislators who passed this law are probably involved with real estate.

[bertman]

18. Recced and kicked because this shit is beyond fucking despicable and

needs to be brought into the public eye.

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. This sounds like an extension of the property rights nuttery.

Generally they do it by buying the tax certificates. I didn't realize they did it with water bills. Something doesn't sound right here.

[KamaAina]

21. There's big bucks in legalized theft!!

...Investors generally bid in an auction for the right to collect delinquent taxes and other municipal debts on property owners, sometimes by paying only a few hundred dollars. When owners can’t pay, investors can pick up property at bargain prices.

It can be a good deal for everyone except the property owner. Selling the debts to investors can help governments efficiently ease budget woes without having the added expenses of debt collection, foreclosing and being a landlord.

Investors, meanwhile, can rake in hefty profits. That’s because they can tack on fees and steep interest rates, which can amount to 18 percent annually in Baltimore.

In Valentine’s case, legal fees and other charges climbed past $3,600–nearly 10 times her original bill.

No need to raise taxes, certainly not in an election year, when you can simply tack on fees tenfold and then sell someone's home to the highest bidder. :eyes:

Unbelievable to see my home town of Bawlmer behaving this way. In my day (early '70s), Charm City bent over backwards to get people like Ms. Valentine into homes in marginal neighborhoods that had been abandoned.

[Art_from_Ark]

25. Legalized theft is right

There is no way that a person should be driven from their bought-and-paid-for home over such a pittance. :argh:

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. thisis the kind of craziness that will lead to social unrest or worst

and it seems some folks really want that to happen.

[Heywood J]

27. Ms. Valentine, you have nothing to lose.

That makes you the fiercest enemy. I hope the city rues the day it ever saw your name on a piece of paper.

[droidamus2]

28. Don't know

I don't know but if somebody tried to pull this crap on me I would be very tempted (as long as I could assure nobody but me would get hurt) to burn the home to the ground. Yes I know I would end up in jail for arson and still lose the property but I least I would have the satisfaction of knowing they didn't get the home I paid for. You notice they always have a cop around when they do this because they know somebody would get hurt if they didn't.

[Canuckistanian]

29. TAX LIENS??

That is SO antithetical to the original intent of a lien. It's to hold or seize property if there is a REFUSAL to pay or the debt is VERY LARGE and VERY overdue.

Time to call those "local governments" to account. THEY'RE the ones empowering the banks to do this. But I'm guessing the banks have no complaint.
Fuck 'em all.

[Bryn]

30. We have too many DINOs/DLCers these days

who are not protecting the interests of the people. Time for change for real. Better yet clean the whole White House and start over for them to work for People, not the corporations.

What a sad story. It's wrong and a crime.

[begin_within]

31. That almost happened to John & Cindy McCain

In 2008 they came very close to defaulting on a property tax bill and the County of San Diego could have forced the sale of their expensive condo in the tony La Jolla Shores neighborhood of San Diego, right across the street from the La Jolla Shores beach. Fortunately for them, someone working for them got the payment into the county tax assessor's office just hours before the legal deadline when the county could have taken that action.