Excite News - Report: Some lose homes over as little as $400
WASHINGTON (AP) - The elderly and other vulnerable homeowners are losing their homes because they owe as little as a few hundred dollars in back taxes, according to a report from a consumer group.
Outdated state laws allow big banks and other investors to reap windfall profits by buying the houses for a pittance and reselling them, the National Consumer Law Center said in a report being released Tuesday.
Local governments can seize and sell a home if the owner falls behind on property taxes and fees. The process helps governments make ends meet at a time when low property values and the weak economy are squeezing tax revenue.
But tax debts as small as $400 can cause people to lose their homes because of arcane laws and misinformation among consumers, says John Rao, the report's author and an attorney with NCLC.
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For those of us who know about condo/hoa foreclosure practices, this sort of thing is old news. The new part is that now tax farmers are doing it.
2 comments:
> But tax debts as small as $400
> can cause people to lose their
> homes because of arcane laws and
> misinformation among consumers,
What!
This is an outrage! This is further proof of the war against individual American home owners by the government!
It's all Obama's fault! Damn the collectivists!
What is needed is to get government out of the way and let the the invisible hand of the free-market work its magic!
"So if you want your freedom, let the corporate seize the day. There really is no better way. Let's privatize, choice is the way."
> For those of us who know about
> condo/hoa foreclosure practices,
> this sort of thing is old news.
Uh, but that's different, because HOAs are private corporations governed under contract law.
Deadbeats who don't pay their HOA dues should lose their homes.
As HOA attorney Robert Tankel said of HOAs foreclosing on homeowners, "It's called capitalism. It's the free market."
The HOA law firms are making tremendous profits from this practice, and Profit Is dwGod Good! Something about a rising tide trickling down on people without boats...
In a capitalist system, if bad things happen to people, it's because they deserve it.
In this recent video, Randal O'Toole and Jon Caldara priase Houston as a model for the rest of the nation's housing policy.
www.joncaldara.com/2012/07/09/video-randal-otoole-on-the-housing-bubblecrisis/
VIDEO: Randal O’Toole on the Housing Bubble/Crisis
Posted by jccaldara on Jul 09 2012
also on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVoEBuiYtqY ( 27:28 )
Published on Jul 9, 2012 by IIonKBDI
Cato Institute and Independence Institute scholar sits down with host Jon Caldara to talk housing bubbles and his new book, "American Nightmare."
They choose to remain ignorant of the fact that Houston is the epicenter of John Carona's house-stealing business empire.
I met Mr. O'Toole at the Independence Institute a few weeks ago, when he was giving a similar presentation to promote his book.
His view on HOAs -- in response to my questions -- was something along the lines of "a few years ago, a few attorneys gave HOAs some bad advice to strictly enforce the covenants, which led to some stories in the news." But otherwise, HOAs are a great thing.
Or, as the Independence Institute put it a few years ago, "Since HOAs are very local and small, participants are often neighbors and hence have incentive to settle disagreements in a civil manner."
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