If you didn’t already see this Washington Post piece from yesterday, you should read it. And by the way, I don’t think D.C. is the only place where this happens. I know the FBI has been investigating our former sheriff, and I’ve heard rumors of him “saving” properties in exchange for kickbacks:
On the day Bennie Coleman lost his house, the day armed U.S. marshals came to his door and ordered him off the property, he slumped in a folding chair across the street and watched the vestiges of his 76 years hauled to the curb.
Movers carted out his easy chair, his clothes, his television. Next came the things that were closest to his heart: his Marine Corps medals and photographs of his dead wife, Martha. The duplex in Northeast Washington that Coleman bought with cash two decades earlier was emptied and shuttered. By sundown, he had nowhere to go.
All because he didn’t pay a $134 property tax bill.
The retired Marine sergeant lost his house on that summer day two years ago through a tax lien sale — an obscure program run by D.C. government that enlists private investors to help the city recover unpaid taxes.
For decades, the District placed liens on properties when homeowners failed to pay their bills, then sold those liens at public auctions to mom-and-pop investors who drew a profit by charging owners interest on top of the tax debt until the money was repaid.
But under the watch of local leaders, the program has morphed into a predatory system of debt collection for well-financed, out-of-town companies that turned $500 delinquencies into $5,000 debts — then foreclosed on homes when families couldn’t pay, a Washington Post investigation found.As the housing market soared, the investors scooped up liens in every corner of the city, then started charging homeowners thousands in legal fees and other costs that far exceeded their original tax bills, with rates for attorneys reaching $450 an hour.
How you could lose your home
Property owners in the District risk losing their homes over relatively small amounts in unpaid property taxes. Here’s a look at the process:1
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If you don’t pay your taxes, the District sells a lien for the tax debt to an investor, usually a company. The investor gets a lien.
$2,500
The typical lien amount, just a fraction of the property’s value
13,000
Tax liens the District has sold from 2005 to 2012
Note: The District no longer sells tax liens on houses for delinquent tax bills under $1,000. Lien amounts include property taxes, penalties and interest. The District doesn’t track legal fees charged to homeowners. The estimates of legal fees is besed on a Post study of more than 200 cases. The foreclosure and court cases are through mid-2013.Source: Data from D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue and D.C. Superior Court
Families have been forced to borrow or strike payment plans to save their homes.Others weren’t as lucky. Tax lien purchasers have foreclosed on nearly 200 houses since 2005 and are now pressing to take 1,200 more, many owned free and clear by families for generations.
Investors also took storefronts, parking lots and vacant land — about 500 properties in all, or an average of one a week. In dozens of cases, the liens were less than $500.
Coleman, struggling with dementia, was among those who lost a home. His debt had snowballed to $4,999 — 37 times the original tax bill. Not only did he lose his $197,000 house, but he also was stripped of the equity because tax lien purchasers are entitled to everything, trumping even mortgage companies.
“This is destroying lives,” said Christopher Leinberger, a distinguished scholar and research professor of urban real estate at George Washington University.
Officials at the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue said that without tax sales, property owners wouldn’t feel compelled to pay their bills.
“The tax sale is the last resort. It’s also the first resort — it’s the only way in the statute to collect debt,” said deputy chief financial officer Stephen Cordi.
But the District, a hotbed for the tax lien industry, has done little to shield its most vulnerable homeowners from unscrupulous operators.
The tax liens should not be privately enforceable. The government would then have to foreclose and sell the property.
Gee, government ownership of property with transactional authority sure sounds a lot like Socialism? That’s a good thing. Communal ownership of property sans contractual deeds. That’s a better thing.