Local laws do little to protect homeowners
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2013/12/08/local-laws-do-little-to-protect-homeowners/
Written by Alexia Campbell, Danielle DeCourcey, Ted Mellnik
Published on December 8, 2013
Local governments placed tax liens on more than 1.6 million properties nationwide last year, but tax collectors from Illinois to Florida to New Jersey acknowledge there are few safeguards in local laws to prevent the private investors who bought them from taking advantage of distressed homeowners, according to a Washington Post study.
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With few protections in place, abusive practices have emerged. ... In Florida in 1998, then-Attorney General Bob Butterworth found large companies were rigging auctions to win liens, costing homeowners hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In Georgia in 2002, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that tax lien companies were charging homeowners tens of thousands of dollars in penalties to reclaim their properties. The Birmingham News described a similar trend in Alabama three years later.
In 2006, The Capital newspaper in Annapolis reported that a small group of well-financed bidders had dominated the local auction, buying 74 percent of all the liens sold. ... In 2007, the Baltimore Sun conducted an investigation that found some of those same bidders were dominating tax auctions in Baltimore, where they were buying up water and sewer liens and charging high fees. Federal investigators would ultimately find that the bidders were rigging auctions across Maryland, leading to three convictions for criminal conspiracy.
Please go to the article to see the interactive graphic.
Citing abuses, federal lawmakers call for examination of tax-lien programs nationwide
http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/citing-abuses-federal-lawmakers-call-for-examination-of-tax-lien-programs-nationwide/2013/09/19/c4f74b76-212b-11e3-b73c-aab60bf735d0_story.html
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