Milwaukee man faces foreclosure because he didn't pay parking fine.

[Bo]

Source: JS online Milwaukee

Peter Tubic ignored a $50 parking fine in 2004, and on Monday, it cost him his $245,000 house.

Read more: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=779234

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I find this very disturbing because the man in question is also mentally ill. Are celebrated institutions have no compassion or soul they are a reflection of are times. God help us.

[question everything]

1. I trust the ACLU or the Public Defender or other good citizens

to rush to defend Mr. Tubic.

[clovis29]

11. I don't think this is that kind of case

Excessive municipal over-reach really isn't their baliwick.

This may suck, but it doesn't look to me like they targeted anyone other than idiots (or bad guessers).

[mbperrin]

2. Something not right here.

Tubic said he set aside $2,600 in an escrow account "to protect the estate in case I die" but didn't want to use it to pay for the parking violation.

If he has the money and he understands escrow, why not use the money to pay the fine? Judge stayed the actual foreclosure - all he has to do is pay, and if those folks at the newspaper spent two weeks with him, why don't they why he doesn't use the money set aside to pay the fine to pay the fine?

[petronius]

42. That was a double-take moment for me as well

My guess is that, although he may have been stressed beyond functioning at the beginning of the situation, it's reached a point where it's more of a 'standing on principle' issue - he's unwilling to pay a ticket that he views as seriously unjust, and he's not going to win.

I've gotten a few unfair tickets over the years, and I've fantasized about some sort of epic, blaze-of-glory resolution to teach the city a lesson, but common sense says to pay the fine or show up in court.

Poor guy...

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I've never heard of a city being able to foreclose on a home. Place a lien against it, but I thought

only the institution holding the mortgage could foreclose.

[slackmaster]

7. In some states, counties or other jurisdictions can foreclose for unpaid property taxes

Here in California you can have your home taken by the county once you are five years delinquent in property tax payments. That fact is one of the reasons we have the Proposition 13 tax limits.

I personally have never heard of a city being able to foreclose for unpaid traffic fines. A lien, sure. More likely you would get your wages garnished.

The "scofflaw" in this case is a pensioner, so his income may be exempt from garnishment.

[dmr]

13. I've the same question, why not a lien, instead?

Why would the city even want to get into the business of selling real estate? Why especially, in today's market? That takes quite a bit of time and effort of city employees and the city attorney; time that could be used elsewhere. If it were my city, I'd be questioning city hall's use of time and reasoning and sense of power.

It's been my experience that cities apply liens on property when they have had to go in and trim grass and weeds, or haul away debris, but never foreclose.

I may be wrong, but it sounds as if this man's brother may have worked out a deal with a city decision-maker to acquire the property away from his disabled brother. Who knows?

To the poster above who questions why this man doesn't use the 2600 dollars he has set aside - well, good question, but he does have some serious problems. Maybe it's his ill-advised perception. Since he kept trying to tell a city worker it was a family issue, maybe he is equating paying the fine to acquiescing to his brother.

[liberalhistorian]

30. Again, plenty of cities will file foreclosures

for unpaid property taxes. They're getting more and more aggressive about it in many areas, too.

[liberalhistorian]

28. In many states, any person or entity, including municipal

entities, with a lien against a home can file a foreclosure against it. I was once a real estate paralegal and saw that all the time. It isn't just the mortgage holder who can file for a foreclosure. In cases of foreclosure filing where the mortgage holder isn't the one filing, then they need to be named as defendants as well.

Many municipalities will file for foreclosure to collect unpaid property taxes. That is actually a very common cause of foreclosures.

[treestar]

43. Anyone with an unpaid lien can foreclose

A secured debt allows for that. No special rules for mortgage companies.

[L0oniX]

4. Yes ...pick on the weak ...that's the Amerian capitalist way.

[On the Road]

5. City Governments are Horrible

They will snatch your house in a second and have no accountibility.

I almost had a new house go to tax sale once because water bills were being sent to:

xxxx Doris Ave.
College Park, MD 20740
Baltimore, MD 21225

That is not a misprint -- they had two city-state-zip lines. No wonder it wasn't getting delievered. Then I was instructed to pay on someone else's account and had to notice that fact and challenge it.

I had another close call because they don't update forwarding addresses like other billing departments. This was partly my fault for not going down in person to make an address change, but when I did make another trip to correct the situation, their attitude was one of blissful unconcern. They are more than happy to take possession of your house for the most minor thing if you don't stay on top of them and make sure they don't have a chance to screw up.

[tomreedtoon]

6. News doesn't cover city governments any more.

Newspapers don't. TV news would rather show car crashes, rapes and murders. But the City Fathers want to introduce oil drilling in the city park? Who knows about it, who reports it, who cares?

[dmr]

14. That is a big problem when corporations buy up local news

and sometimes they do it for a reason - to keep the locals blind.

[Ellipsis]

8. The car was in HIS drive way when he got the ticket!

"Tubic first got the fine for parking his Ford E150 with no license plates in the driveway of the home, which belonged to his parents at the time . The radiator had broken and Tubic couldn't get his plates renewed unless the van passed an emissions test. He didn't have the money to make the repair and had more pressing worries, he said."

[awoke_in_2003]

12. A lot of cities get pissy about that...

I got threatened when my car was in the drive way with an expired inspection sticker. No other external defects. Cities just like to use their thugs to hassle people and bring in more revenue.

[tblue37]

17. I also got hassled for that. n/t

[The Croquist]

20. That's really sleazy

If a car is on your own property and not an eyesore it is none of their stinking business. Who do these butt-heads think they are the Homeowner Nazis?

[awoke_in_2003]

22. I don't even belong to a homeowners association

cops are just pricks who get their jollies hassling people.

[liberalhistorian]

32. Really? So if someone is trying to break into your house

or you're being mugged or worse, you're just not going to bother to call them? And all those cops who put their lives on the line and get shot by burglars, murderers, rapists, kidnappers or worse just don't count?

[tammywammy]

31. His brother is the one that called in the complaint on the code violation

[liberalhistorian]

29. I had a piece of shit Ford Escort once

(I realize Ford and piece of shit is redundant). Every other week the goddamned thing was in the shop for something or other and it usually conked out while I was leaving work, fifty miles away from home, so I had to pay over a hundred bucks just to have the fucker towed to my mechanic. I think I paid for my mechanic's children's braces and school tuition with that car, too, never mind being a broke single parent. And it was only a few years old, too.

Anyway, it finally conked out for good, or, should I say, I gave up on the fucker, when a 25-buck part in the fan broke, there was no way of knowing it, the engine overheated and almost exploded, and consequently two gaskets were blown and there were two big cracks in the engine. I'd already shelled out well over two grand on the car, including having to replace the transmission after only having it for six months and when it was only three years old, and I wasn't about to shell out more when the repairs would have cost way more than the damned thing was worth and it would have continued to have more problems after that. But I still had 18 months of car payments. So, I parked in it the side yard of our house and drove an older car of my parents that they were getting rid of. I didn't bother to get its license plate tag renewed, what the hell for? It sure as hell wasn't going to go anywhere. I let the insurance lapse, too, and paid the insurance on my parents' car that I was driving. While my credit union raised hell for awhile over the lapsed insurance, I was finally able to make reason prevail with them.

But not so with the city. For the next 18 months, I had fun dealing with the ignorant neanderthals at the parking bureau who insisted that the tags be renewed. Never mind that you had to have an emissions check to get the renewal and there was no way in hell I could get that, nor would I have bothered for a car that wasn't going anywhere ever again, except to the junk pile the minute the last payment was finally made (and oh, did I enjoy seeing that fucker hauled away!) I just couldn't get through to them that it was not possible to have the tags renewed.

So, I can see where this guy was coming from, totally. And parking tickets are nothing but a total and complete joke, they are just an easy revenue source for city coffers. That is IT.

[Ellipsis]

9. Info for Mayor's office

Tom Barrett's a good mayor but it couldn't hurt to help make him aware of how this makes Milwaukee look.

Office of the Mayor
200 E. Wells Street
City Hall Rm.201
Milwaukee, WI 53202 Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

[Th1onein]

18. I just called the Mayor.

Got a message that the user's mailbox can't accept more messages. Apparently someone, somewhere, has been busy raising hell about this.

Please, when the mailbox is emptied, give the Mayor a call. This is an abomination.

[Ellipsis]

21. Well fancy that... UPDATE.

Mayor Tom Barrett promised Monday to try to help a disabled man after the city foreclosed on his house to collect fines that resulted from a $50 parking citation, but the mayor stopped short of saying the city would drop its pursuit of the $245,000 house.


<snip>

"It's before the courts right now," Barrett said.

Barrett said he plans to contact leaders in the mental health community to see if they could help.
"Part of what has made this case more difficult is he wants to fight this, but the difficulty is he's never gotten in the ring," Barrett said of the homeowner. Barrett said that while the punishment seemed extreme for the crime, the case was too unusual to warrant a change in policy.

"Do I think we should get a house if someone doesn't pay their (car) registration? No, but this is unusual," he said.

more...

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=779632

[lonestarnot]

49. Well as I was saying!

:woohoo: hope he can do something!

[tammywammy]

10. Tubic has money set aside that could pay the fine

"'Tubic said he set aside $2,600 in an escrow account "to protect the estate in case I die" but didn't want to use it to pay for the parking violation."

[SahaleArm]

15. $50 Parking Ticket to $2600 - that's absurd...

Most cities send parking and moving violations to collections where the collections fee is capped (30-50% of the ticket fee).

[Th1onein]

19. THEY CAME OUT OVER AND OVER AGAIN, TO FINE HIM

OVER AND OVER AGAIN. This poor man. They always target the weak and the helpless.

[Lance_Boyle]

23. I know - the assholes target me over and over again when I speed

I wonder... if I put off paying the fines long enough if the problem will just go away?

This guy got the ticket, this guy knew it was his responsibility to pay the ticket, yet he didn't. More scofflaw than hero, this one. Pay the fine and keep the house, or shut up and move, deadbeat.

[truebrit71]

24. Wow, act like a dick much?

What is it about "disabled" that you failed to comprehend in that article...

Or did you even bother to read it?

:eyes:

[liberalhistorian]

34. Not to mention the fact that he shouldn't even have been

given the ticket in the first place and that parking "violations" are just plain bullshit and a cheap, easy way for cities to get revenue.

[Th1onein]

35. BULLSHIT!

They came out to target him again and again for the SAME OFFENSE. Getting a ticket for speeding time and again is a different matter and you know it.

It's people like you that make it okay for people to lose their $200,000 homes over a $50 transgression. What bullshit.

[tammywammy]

37. His brother should pay the fine

Since the man, while he has the money, isn't going to. The brother is the one that originally called in the code violation.


And it was one code violation ticket that he's refusing to pay, not multiple tickets.

[Th1onein]

39. Oh, but they wrote him up and fined him on the same violation

multiple times. Sent an officer out over and over again, to give him multiple tickets. Ain't that nice?

[tammywammy]

41. No, he has one ticket according to the article

They sent him multiple notices to pay the fine.

[Th1onein]

45. Noooo.....Read the article again.

"Month after month the city Department of Neighborhood Services sent an inspector to the house to see if the van had moved or had license plates. Each time a new fee was assessed. And a letter was sent to Tubic's home."

EACH TIME A NEW FEE WAS ASSESSED. Did you read that part? They sent an "inspector" over and over again, to the house, to see if the van was moved or tagged. When it wasn't, they assessed ANOTHER fine. OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

[tammywammy]

50. So why doesn't his brother, who started this whole thing rolling by calling in a complaint

Pony up the money?

[Th1onein]

51. Who knows? That is not the point, though.

These city officials targeted this guy, not once, twice, but over and over again. This man should not lose his home over this. NO ONE should lose their homes over this kind of thing, whether they pay the fines or not. It's simply WRONG.

[tammywammy]

38. No, according to the article

He got one ticket. He received multiple notices to pay.

[dysfunctional press]

40. who came out...? according to the article, it looks like they just sent him notices...

:shrug:

[originalpckelly]

16. And there we have it, the natural conclusion to this absurdity we call government.

Give the government the power to fine you for your own good. Give the government the power to increase that fine as times goes on. The government takes your house to pay the inflated fine, for your own good.

It certainly makes sense to me that a man should be losing his house for his own good. Just think of the bright side, he'll always have fresh air on the street. See it was for his own good. :P

[flvegan]

25. The article calls it a zoning fine, which a municipality can foreclose on

in most cases. The judge has stayed the case temporarily. I see this man keeping his home, ultimately.

[Freddie Stubbs]

26. Actually is was a code violation dealing with his property, not a parking ticket

Hence the city's ability to go after the house.

[Heywood J]

27. This is the type of thing that usually ends with a barrel pointing out a window

at the oncoming officers, or him walking into City Hall and doing the same. You can only screw with people for so long over petty matters before the consequences come home.

I don't know if I'd be entirely able to blame him if the next article I read involved a gun and Milwaukee City Hall, as long as it was the right department. I know how I'd feel in his place.

[SeattleGirl]

33. Jeebus Christ on a crutch!!!!!

This is one of the most absurd things I've heard! The guy had a lot of stuff going on, AND the vehicle was PARKED IN THE DRIVEWAY!!!! And the city says there's nothing they can do about it??? Fuck that noise!!! THEY make the rules, so they can damned well DO SOMETHING about the rules!

This is utter bullshit!

[Th1onein]

36. CALL THE MAYOR!

I just called, but his phone was full of messages AGAIN. Put pressure on these bastards. Back them into a corner. If I was in Milwaukee, I'd be on that Mayor's sidewalk with a sign right about now. I'd embarrass the shit out of him.

[wvbygod]

44. Isn't Tom Barrett, the mayor a democratic socialist?

Why on earth would he be trying to steal someones home?

[Uncle Joe]

46. This seems to be a clear violation of Tubic's 8th Amendment Rights.

If the problem was the van parked in his parents driveway with no license plate, the problem was the van not his home. They could just as easily have towed the van away and sold it instead of foreclosing on his home. They could have placed a lien on the property.

"Tubic first got the fine for parking his Ford E150 with no license plates in the driveway of the home, which belonged to his parents at the time . The radiator had broken and Tubic couldn't get his plates renewed unless the van passed an emissions test. He didn't have the money to make the repair and had more pressing worries, he said.

His father was suffering from dementia. His mother was battling cancer, and he was their live-in caretaker. He needed to shop, cook, clean, maintain the house and tend to his parents' needs."

8th Amendment; Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Taking someone's home valued at well over $200,000 is clearly excessive punishment for $2,600 in fines. So what is the end result, did the city make someone homeless because of a parking violation? If that isn't cruel and unusual punishment, I don't know what is.

[lonestarnot]

47. This is just fucking insane! Infuckingsane! Someone needs to help this man!

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

48. "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?"

'The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?' said Scrooge.

'At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge,' said the gentleman, taking up a pen, 'it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.'

'Are there no prisons?"

'Plenty of prisons,' said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

'And the Union workhouses.' demanded Scrooge. 'Are they still in operation?'

'Both very busy, sir.'

'Oh. I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,' said Scrooge. 'I'm very glad to hear it.'

'Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,' returned the gentleman, 'a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?'

'Nothing!' Scrooge replied.

'You wish to be anonymous?'

'I wish to be left alone,' said Scrooge. 'Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned-they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.'

'Many can't go there; and many would rather die.'

'If they would rather die,' said Scrooge, 'they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."

:cry: