A missing property tax bill for $1.63 has given Kermit and Dolores Atwood "seven years of emotional hell" in a fight to keep their home.
The bill was sent to a defunct address in 1996 and returned undelivered to the St. Tammany Parish sheriff's office. The Atwoods weren't looking for it since they had owned the four-bedroom house mortgage-free since 1968 and had been exempt from the state tax.
Which does bring up the question of, since their home was exempt, why was any bill sent? And why no further attempt? Of course, that would be calling into question the efficiency of the agency involved...Instead, the Atwoods' home was sold at a sheriff's auction in 1997 to American Land Investments because of the delinquent bill. The couple have won several court challenges since then and hope to withstand one more appeal over the property.
The State Tax Commission eventually nullified the 1997 sale, but when the Atwoods tried to sell the house in 2002, they discovered that American Land Investments had sold the property rights to Jamie Land Co., which then sued the Atwoods.
James A. Lindsay II, the company's president, said his rights were violated when the tax commission didn't inform him of its decision.
And so on.
This kind of crap happens fairly regularly. And how many cases have been noted where the IRS made an error and screwed someone's life over? How many people have been advised to 'pay whatever they demand, because you'll go broke fighting it'?
Yeah, government-run health care will be just wonderful!
No comments:
Post a Comment