Judge says it was OK to sell widow's home over $6 bill

[groundloop]

Source: CBS News

BEAVER, Pa. - A widow was given ample notice before her $280,000 house was sold at a tax auction three years ago over $6.30 in unpaid interest, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled.

The decision last week turned down Eileen Battisti's request to reverse the September 2011 sale of her home outside Aliquippa in western Pennsylvania.

"I paid everything, and didn't know about the $6.30," Battisti said. "For the house to be sold just because of $6.30 is crazy."

.................

"There is no doubt that (she) had actual receipt of the notification of the tax upset sale on July 7, 2011, and Aug. 16, 2011," the judge wrote. "Moreover, on Aug. 12, 2011, a notice of sale was sent by first class mail and was not returned."

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-says-it-was-ok-to-sell-widows-home-over-6-bill/

[GeorgeGist]

1. Could be she's just stupid. .

Like Clive Bundy.

[CBGLuthier]

9. Or maybe the judge is a callous unsympathetic person

Like you.

[Reter]

32. Or maybe both

n/t

[christx30]

10. This kind of thing

can happen to anyone. Could be you lose your home over a forgotten anything from 6 years ago. Hope someone has more sympathy for you when that happens.

[frylock]

27. the judge? absolutely agree.

[rhett o rick]

33. So let's say she isnt as smart as you. Is your point she deserves losing her house?

I would like to think we live in a society where we look out for those that may have troubles. Ayn Rand wouldnt like it. How about you?

[The Wizard]

2. In Pennsylvania

justice goes to the highest bidder. Remember the judges who were throwing children in juvenile detention centers for profit.
$6.30, really? The Judge should be disbarred and sued for judicial malpractice. No one should lose their home because of a corrupt Judge's arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable decision.

[perdita9]

18. Yes, the judgement was harsh....

....but probably legal. If you don't pay your taxes, the state can take your house.

I'm sorry someone from the clerks office didn't try to contact this woman personally. I really wish she'd opened her mail

[rhett o rick]

34. We have laws, but we also have common sense. This is not what our society is about.

This is simple greed ruling and using laws as cover. May this decision haunt the judge.

[blackspade]

3. What a stupid ruling.

Some judges have no common sense.

[PADemD]

4. vacated ruling

A Beaver County appeals court has vacated a ruling in a case against homeowner Eileen Battisti, saying the trial court acted too hastily when it denied Battisti a proper hearing to prevent her home from being sold at auction two years ago.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/eileen-battisti-gets-another-shot-at-saving-home-2013-8#ixzz30HE3BTig

[DebJ]

6. That's from August of last year, before the current determination. n/t

[DebJ]

5. I googled to find out some more on this story... actually, I wanted to know

who bought the home .. was it some big corporation that is snatching up houses and renting them, driving up
the market and making it more difficult and expensive for people to buy homes? Didn't get that answer.

But as of the date of the sale, the woman owed $235 ($6.30 is just the interest portion on what she paid in the past and she was unaware of that amount). But that was in 2011. As of today, she owes $20,000. However, I suppose that is because she certainly couldn't pay the taxes on the home in 2012 and 2013, since it had been sold.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/28/pennsylvania-widow-loses-home-6-tax-lien/8432411/

The story also said that her husband took care of the finances until he died in 2004.

"In appealing the sale, Battisti told the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania that she "has struggled to assume responsibility for the financial matters previously handled by her husband," in addition to "physical and emotional challenges that have caused her to be tardy in paying taxes."

Those challenges included "a serious physical injury suffered by her daughter, the murder of her son's best friend at college, and a serious physical injury that kept Taxpayer out of work for some time."

I guess what surprised me the most was her picture. My brain automatically equates 'widow' with 'elderly'. She isn't.
On edit: I can understand somewhat women in their 80s who never handled the family finances. For someone who looks more like they are in their 50s-60s (my age), I find it incomprehensible that she wouldn't know how to handle the finances, and very unusual. I keep reading stories that 85% of American home budgets are handled by the wife, and that is my life experience with friends and family as well.

[groundloop]

7. Geez, you mean CBS News didn't dig deeper and get the whole story !!!!!!

Color me shocked!!!

[Corruption Inc]

36. Exactly, CBS "news" isn't news.

CBS has been lying to the public for a solid 15 years straight and yet people still think CBS has some credibility.

Wake up people, CBS lies to you daily for profit. They lie about torture, nuclear weapons, spying on you; they know no bounds.

[peace13]

19. Pretty harsh on determining whether she was grieving hard enough to have troubles.

My sister died four months ago. I was her care giver and handled her finances for over four years before she died. I am now going through her estate and have to deal with all of the family issues in addition. Sometimes I don't know if I'm up or down. It is very hard. I can not judge this woman and her mental state by age alone. I wish her well and am sorry that she had to deal with all of this. No one would expect their home to be sold out from under them for $6 bucks and I am certain she did not go looking for trouble in a time when she already had trouble. The law is set to compound this issue in short time as we can see form the above. For the note..... I am in my fifties.

[Sunlei]

30. Terrible to lose ones home over a $6 & change 'late fee.' Homeowners associations will do that too.

Ramp up the fines for some minor 'violation' to some ridiculous amount. Have their Association Lawyer auction your home off if you don't/can't pay.

[Lefta Dissenter]

8. This is disgusting.

I work for a bankruptcy attorney. I frequently receive calls from clients or former clients who have received notices that they simply don't understand from companies or government agencies. Oftentimes they're dealing with depression or personal trauma, as this woman is, and the paperwork can be overwhelming to the point that sometimes mail even goes unopened. Add to that the piles of pseudo-official mail that comes to people who are in financial or legal distress, and for some, their heads are just spinning.

How 'bout a simple phone call from a human being, explaining the severity of the situation? I made an online payment for my property taxes, and for some reason the bank had trouble processing the payment. I received a call from the City Treasurer's office the next day, telling me that the bank couldn't find the account and process the payment. It took a couple of minutes of that clerk's time to make a call, to spare me from having to pay penalties. I GREATLY appreciated this kindness, and I'm guessing that the clerk was happy to have spared someone some grief.

I hope that this case can be appealed and won, but I'll be surprised if a sale is overturned. Damn.


edited to add that I'm glad to see from other people's posts that this is not the whole story, and that the ruling was vacated.

[Shemp Howard]

26. Very good post!

Your post was filled with common sense.

I had a relative who would often ignore legal letters that she couldn't understand. I think it was due to a combination of frustration and embarrassment. As you said, a short phone call from a human being would have worked wonders.

Let me know if you're planning to run for judge. You've got my vote!

[Lefta Dissenter]

35. HA,

I'd make a terrible judge. I cry too easily.

[Sunlei]

31. Happy to read "the ruling was vacated." Hope she doesn't still owe the 20k.

I wish the "we hate taxes Republicans" could focus to get rid of local property taxes!

[2pooped2pop]

11. should start an internet donation to buy it back

of course depending on what it was sold for. She has two years to buy it back at sale price, I think.

[Kelvin Mace]

12. "Moreover, on Aug. 12, 2011, a notice of sale was sent by first class mail and was not returned."

So?

You don't take a person's house away over $6.30.

It may be the law, but it is unjust and dickish in the extreme.

[Gormy Cuss]

15. Whatever happen to liens waiting for the owner to sell?

Seriously, selling a house to recover a tiny amount is so outlandish that the citizens of that area should be up in arms.

[perdita9]

17. It's called capitalism

There are a lot of vulture companies out there who stand ready to exploit people who don't pay their bills.

I don't approve of what happened here but the homeowner could have saved herself all this trouble by writing a check for $7.00

[christx30]

25. It's disguesting capitalism

exploiting a government with too much power. We take away the tools, (as in change the law to where someone has to owe like 20+% of the assessed value before they lose their homes), and this kind of garbage stops. And there is no reason why a $6.30 debt should be able to get over $20,000 in penalties. There should be a cap. After the cap, it doesn't go away, but it won't get any bigger. Maybe it should double or triple, but not grow any more.
It's no wonder people have no respect for the law. The law, and the people that administer it, have no respect or compassion for the people.

[Jefferson23]

13. Hateful and disgusting. n/t

[mahatmakanejeeves]

14. This happens all over.

Washington, DC, for example:

Left With Nothing: Washington Post Series on Tax Lien Sales

(Washington, D.C.) Tax lien sales canceled after Post investigation; Gray calls for reforms

Predatory Tax Lien Buyer Spreading Misery Across U.S., But Who’s Behind It?

Yesterday, the Washington Post published Michael Sallah and Debbie Cenziper’s exhaustive account of their attempt to identify the owners of a firm that threatened to foreclose on hundreds of residents of the District of Columbia.

Aeon Financial has been the most aggressive buyer of tax liens in the District, purchasing over 1,000 of them and attempting to foreclose on over 700 homeowners. Its operating procedure is to cold-contact homeowners whose liens they have purchased and demand not only the back taxes, but additional legal fees that often amount to three times the tax debt.

The company is incorporated in Delaware, but claims to be headquartered in Chicago’s Willis Tower. When The Post showed up at the Tower and inquired as to the location of Aeon’s offices, Tower officials informed it that Aeon was not a tenant. Secondary addresses in the Chicago area were discovered to be United Parcel Services stores. Eventually, The Post tracked ownership of the company back to Mark Alan Schwartz, a lawyer who claimed only to be representing it.

[perdita9]

16. It's not good to ignore government notices

From what I've read of this story, it appears this woman has mental health issues.

The problem is she ignored the process and, in doing so, left herself open to losing her home. I don't approve of this at all, in fact I think it's crazy, but in a capitalist society, vultures are always circling looking for someone to exploit.

[peace13]

21. Funny thing is.....

you can check the ledgers Many big boys owe back taxes on shopping malls, office buildings and on and on and they don't seem to come to the top of the list.

[happyslug]

20. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette goes into more details

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/north/2014/04/29/She-lost-her-home-again-because-she-owed-6-30/stories/201404290111

[PoliticAverse]

28. "posted her front door with a white, letter-sized sheet of paper" n/t

[KansDem]

22. You know, if I were the judge I might just stop by her house on the way home from work one day...

...and explain the situation and ask for the $6.30.

Wotthehell! I might just pull out my wallet and throw the money into the kitty myself!

[peace13]

23. It could happen!

I called a judge's office one time because he gave a child rapist a six year sentence. I just left a message for him explaining that I could not wrap my mind around such a light sentence. Within an hour the phone rang and it was the judge. We had a good talk and at the end of it he asked that if I ever have concerns again to please, just ask to speak with him and to not leave a message with his staff. It was an interesting conversation for sure.

[Finishline42]

24. Yes, it happens all over the country

Maybe there should be some limit - like the tax owed is 20% of the assessed value - before someone could lose their house in a foreclosure?

[PoliticAverse]

29. I don't understand why they didn't add the amount to the tax bill for the following year. n/t