PA: Widow Loses Appeal of Six Dollar Tax Lien, Her $280.000 Home Sold To Cover Debt!!

[Denali]

http://rt.com/usa/155540-house-sale-paltry-debt/

I am left speechless....

Last week, County Judge C. Gus Kwidis ruled against Battisti, saying she had been properly notified of her debt and that the sale followed state law. In his six-page order, the judge said the former homeowner is entitled to $108,039 in proceeds from the sale after her tax obligations are met.

“She's going to get that money, but she's going to lose her house. All the notice requirements were met,” Kwidis said on Friday as cited by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “In tax assessment laws, even if I feel sorry for her, I can't do anything to help her. ... Everyone felt bad about it.”

Battisti plans to appeal the ruling before the Commonwealth Court, she said.

Joe Askar, Beaver County's chief solicitor, said the judge got the decision right.

"The county never wants to see anybody lose their home, but at the same time the tax sale law, the tax real estate law, doesn't give a whole lot of room for error either," Askar said.

[platoonDaddy]

I have family members living in the area and are up in arms!

2nd bad ruling coming out of PA, one my this judge and the state supreme court.

[Denali]

I have family members living in the area and are up in arms!

2nd bad ruling coming out of PA, one my this judge and the state supreme court.

If you are able, please inquire of your family as to just who the hell is "SP Lewis?" And feel free to follow it up here...

[Ick]

She ADMITTED that she did receive some notices...... so when you play stupid games like "ignore your mail for months on end".... there are consequences.

It is, unfortunate, that it was for such a small dollar amount. Alas, are we to deny the rights of the buyer that legitimately paid for a home in a legal transaction that was a result of her ignoring her mail for months?

Tell me it ain't so M4C, tell me it ain't so.

We can't protect everyone for every conceivable consequence of every bad choice or bad decision at all times..... just to be nice. Not playing by the rules and ignoring mail has consequences. Real consequences.

Perhaps someone in .gov SHOULD have looked up the woman's children and notified them? Perhaps someone in .gov should have just ignored it forever? At what point do you want your .gov to "ignore" and amount, $100? Would that be "fair"?

Putting your proverbial head in a hole like an ostrich and ignoring correspondence has consequences.

Likely the house is NOT worth $280,000 either. That is headline grabbing right there.

[SteyrAUG]

She ADMITTED that she did receive some notices...... so when you play stupid games like "ignore your mail for months on end".... there are consequences.

I didn't see that part, I just saw this.

Battisti appealed the move, saying she didn’t know she owed the past due charge until she was notified that her home would be sold.

[WillBrink]

I didn't see that part, I just saw this.

"Battisti appealed the move, saying she didn’t know she owed the past due charge until she was notified that her home would be sold."

You really buying that? Color me skeptical.

[Ick]

I had a tenant that I sent a letter, registered, with a return receipt notice.

She would open her PO box, take out other mail, ignore the post office's notice to stop in the window to sign for an envelope.

She knew what it was, refused to receive it.

Games are played. There are winners and losers.

Eventually, after 30 or 60 days (I forget), the Post Office was required to return the undelivered letter to me. As you can imagine, I kept the unopened letter that was "refused".

What can you do? You give notice. You play games, you lose.

Can you imagine the crap-storm this buyer is getting over this?

He is not party to her games... yet he gets the full brunt of mob mentality AND is waiting months and months to get the house he has signed on the dotted line for..... tough crap for him I guess, huh?

[SteyrAUG]

"Battisti appealed the move, saying she didn’t know she owed the past due charge until she was notified that her home would be sold."

You really buying that? Color me skeptical.

I'm buying that. I know a lot of old widows that don't open their mail regularly. The house is "free and clear" and they just open and pay their light bills and such. Some of them have been scammed by official looking letters for owed taxes, assessments, etc. and after they get chastised for being "so gullible" a couple times they actually become afraid of their mail.

A few of my grandmothers friends got swindled over the phone for a few thousand dollars when people called claiming their deceased husband had outstanding debts, unpaid taxes and things like that. Word got out around the "old lady network" in town and when I asked my grandmother a few years back about her large box of unopened mail she replied it was just "people trying to rob me for money."

At some point in the "we are taking your home over a $6 late fee" process a person needs to make direct contact. There isn't really a dollar threshold but like being "served" before you can force the sale of a home it should be a requirement to have somebody knock on the door and say "Do you understand that if this isn't paid we can and will sell your house?" Once notified face to face the ball is then in the homeowners court.

I just don't see an old lady saying "Screw em for $6, let them try and take my house." This is a large variety headache and $6 and change is the "easy button" to make it go away.

[chuckman]

Well, the government is not going to do the right thing for the people. It's not its nature. Some low-level civil servant playing the "not my job" game passes the buck when it is nearly certain nothing can be done to help the lady, when said servant could have very likely mitigated the whole thing.

I see the same thing in medicine, where people just will not do the right thing because it is not "policy" or not "SOP."

[Ick]

Being that I live in PA and this county likely has the exact same RE tax system....

Taxes are paid twice a year.

Probably her March 2009 bill where she did not pay the full amount due. I am guessing. Who knows?
Her September 2009 RE tax bill, which apparently she RECEIVED and PAID, would have showed past taxes unpaid.
Her March 2010 RE tax bill, which apparently she RECEIVED and PAID, would have showed past taxes unpaid.
Her September 2010 RE tax bill, which apparently she RECEIVED and PAID, would have showed past taxes unpaid.
Her March 2011 RE tax bill, which apparently she RECEIVED and PAID, would have showed past taxes unpaid.
Home sold in September 2011.

How many other notices, including the aforementioned registered letter that was returned... do you think she was sent? One a year? That is three more notices on top of her regular RE tax notices.

So by my estimation she likely received SEVEN pieces of correspondence that showed something was up.

So she received all of these notices at the same address... yet somehow had no clue....