ERIC BOEHM | 11.6.2019 7:40 AM (Reason.com)
Donald Freed, a resident of Alma, Michigan, who had his home and 35 acres of land seized by Gratiot County, Michigan, over a $750 tax debt. The property was auctioned for more than $100,000—and, of course, the county kept the change.
Romualdo and Erica Perez (Photo courtesy Pacific Legal Foundation)
Romualdo and Erica Perez, a father/daughter duo who bought a four-unit apartment building and an adjacent, abandoned single-family home in Detroit in 2012. Even though they were living in New Jersey at the time, Romualdo would drive 11 hours to Detroit on weekends to fix up the properties in the hopes of eventually relocating there to be closer to other relatives. Romualdo and Erica planned to live in the house and earn a living by renting the small apartment building.
“Every bit of money we saved and every spare minute we had went to fixing the house,” Erica says. “The plumbing, the electricity—everything.”
But the first year they owned the property, they underpaid their property taxes by $144. County tax records show that they made full payments, on time, every subsequent year. But Wayne County never informed them of the unpaid debt, they say, because the notices were sent to the wrong address. But the county should have known the correct address for the notices because more recent property tax payments indicated the proper address, says Martin.
In 2017, the county foreclosed on their property, sold it for $108,000, and kept the excess equity beyond the $359 owed in back taxes, fees, and interest. They, too, are suing the state with the assistance of the Pacific Legal Foundation, in a case that’s separate from Rafaeli’s.
