Roverron
09-13-2013, 06:07 PM
For not paying a property tax bill $134.00
Bennie Coleman, US Marine Corps Sergeant (retired), watched from a lawn chair across the street as armed federal US Marshals stormed his house, stole his possessions and put his house up for sale, which he paid in full with cash more than 20 years ago.
A controversial program is at fault. In Washington D.C. tax liens are placed on property owners. If not paid, the lien is sold to a private group who inflates the original debt to astronomical figures. Sergeant Coleman owed $134 to the government.
Sergeant Coleman’s tax bill ballooned to $4,999. He lost his $197,000 home and all equity that it had built over the past two decades. The program entitles the private "investors” to everything. The investors’ entitlements even trump the mortgage companies.
According to a 10 month investigation from the Washington Post:
"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."
http://benswann.com/armed-agents-evict-elderly-veteran-with-dementia-for-forgetting-134-property-tax-bill/
Whores F'n crap! WTF? Why is this being allowed?
Bennie Coleman, US Marine Corps Sergeant (retired), watched from a lawn chair across the street as armed federal US Marshals stormed his house, stole his possessions and put his house up for sale, which he paid in full with cash more than 20 years ago.
A controversial program is at fault. In Washington D.C. tax liens are placed on property owners. If not paid, the lien is sold to a private group who inflates the original debt to astronomical figures. Sergeant Coleman owed $134 to the government.
Sergeant Coleman’s tax bill ballooned to $4,999. He lost his $197,000 home and all equity that it had built over the past two decades. The program entitles the private "investors” to everything. The investors’ entitlements even trump the mortgage companies.
According to a 10 month investigation from the Washington Post:
"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."
http://benswann.com/armed-agents-evict-elderly-veteran-with-dementia-for-forgetting-134-property-tax-bill/
Whores F'n crap! WTF? Why is this being allowed?