Posted BY: RM | NwoReport
(Natural News) We all know that failing to pay your taxes can have repercussions, but you may be surprised to learn that 12 states regularly seize dramatically more than what they are owed by homeowners who have fallen behind on their property tax payments in a practice that has been termed “home equity theft.”
A new report from the Pacific Legal Foundation that illustrates “the injustice of home equity theft through tax foreclosure” shows how homeowners across the nation lost more than $777 million worth of life savings on thousands of homes through transactions from 2014 to 2021, and they note that the real number is likely higher as data was not available for every state. Homeowners lost, on average, 86 percent of their home equity in such transactions.
To understand how it works, imagine that you owe someone $12, and they take a $100 bill from your wallet and keep the change. This is exactly what is happening when these states take people’s homes to cover delinquent real estate taxes.
For example, when 93-year-old Minnesota woman Geraldine Tyler failed to pay roughly $2,300 in property taxes, Hennepin County foreclosed on her Minneapolis condo and sold it for $40,000. Instead of refunding her the $25,000 that was left after paying the delinquent taxes and related costs such as penalties and interest, the government kept all of the money for themselves.
When Nebraska man Kevin Fair fell behind on property tax payments after quitting his job to care for his dying wife, Scotts Bluff County sold the property tax debt to a private company that tried to collect the taxes plus 14 percent interest. When he was unable to get a loan to cover it, the county treasurer deeded his home to the investor. This left Fair with nothing, even though his home was worth around 11 times more than the debt he owed.
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