A DISABLED man was instructed to immediately leave his home after it was sold from under him, allegedly without warning.
Archie Robinson from Memphis, Tennessee is one of numerous homeowners whose homes were sold by Shelby County at auction during the pandemic.
The County foreclosed the properties because the owners were behind on tax bills.
“Some young lady served me some papers stating that someone had bought the home, and why was I here? And who was I?” the 54-year-old told WMC-TV in 2022.
“I was like – I’ve been here basically all my life.”
Robinson inherited his childhood home when his mother, who was behind on her property taxes, died.
However, the property was then sold in a tax sale in February 2021 by the Shelby County Trustee’s Office.
This action is taken so the money owed to the county, in this case, $5,000, can be paid back from the sale.
Robinson was sick and bedridden in 2021 when he received an eviction notice telling him to vacate the property “immediately” and claims he had no idea his home had been sold.
“I asked, ‘How could you sell my property without me knowing?'” Robinson said.
“He said ‘Well, we sent out notices,’ “I said, ‘Well, I haven’t received any notices.'”
Under state laws, homeowners whose properties are set to undergo tax sales must be notified.
Shelby County uses certified mail which must be signed by the homeowner or another authorized individual to prove receipt of the notice.
However, during the pandemic, the U.S. Postal Service allowed carriers to sign the notices instead of the homeowners with the words “COVID” or “C-19.”
Shelby County Trustee Regina Morrison Newman told the news outlet that Robinson signed three certified mail notices, though he denies this.
However, she did not dispute the fact that thousands of homeowners may not have been correctly informed of a tax sale.
“Our return receipts for 30,000 pieces of certified mail came back marked COVID, so we could not prove to the courts that anybody received that mail or that due process was provided,” Newman told the County Commission in October 2020.
Despite this, the Trustee’s Office auctioned off nearly 1,700 homes between August 2020 and February 2021.
During this period there was a ban on federal eviction and mortgage foreclosure.
According to the analysis done by the University of Memphis Institute for Public Service Reporting in a joint investigation with WMC-TV, the majority of these properties were empty but over 400 seemed to be occupied at the time.
When faced with eviction, owners are either forced to move somewhere else quickly or cough up the money to repurchase their homes.
How can your home be sold without your consent?
Your home can be sold from under you for various reasons – here are three key things to look out for:
Tax Sale
- A Tax sale is the sale of property by a governmental entity to recover unpaid taxes by the owner who has reached a certain point of delinquency in their owed payments.
- Before a tax sale takes place, there is a right-of-redemption period where the owner can pay off their debt and reclaim their home.
- Each state has different laws surrounding tax sales but in most areas, the basic requirement is that adequate notice is given to the owner to pay the outstanding money, and any sale must be open to the public.
Foreclosure
- Foreclosures can take place when lenders take control of a property after borrowers have failed to make their repayments.
- Borrowers will receive a Notice of Default, triggering the foreclosure process.
- Homeowners in HOA communities can also see their homes foreclosed by their HOA for falling behind on fees.
- This means that even if you keep up with mortgage repayments, you could still lose your home if your HOA has a lien on your property.
- When such a foreclosure takes place, the sale price only needs to be enough to cover the HOA debt meaning that properties can be sold for much less than they are worth.
Property Fraud
- Criminals can sell or mortgage homes by pretending to be the owner by using a fake or stolen ID.
- Typical targets for property fraud include absent owners like landlords, owners who live abroad, and sole owners of unmortgaged homes.
- The U.S. Sun previously reported on a man whose vacation home worth $300,000 was sold by criminals for just $9,000 – they even had the deed to the property.
Newman defended the actions of the Trustee’s Office by arguing to the news outlet that the addresses of the homes set for tax sale were published in the Memphis Daily News.
It is a state requirement to put the addresses in a newspaper that is in general circulation as well as putting them on the Public Notice Tennessee website.
However, the news outlet was told by several homeowners, including Robinson, that they had never heard of or seen the Memphis Daily News.
A former attorney from Newman’s office spoke to the news outlet about the issue.
Jack Turner explained that homeowners can come forward to claim that they did not receive proper notice of the sale of their homes.
“Somebody may challenge a tax sale after the fact and say they were never given notice and the courts will have to decide whether the notice was sufficient or not,” said Turner.
“If that happens, they’re still going to have back taxes due, but it might set aside a tax sale.”
Turner added that before he left his position at Newman’s office, it was still receiving certified mail that was signed by postal workers, not homeowners, while tax sales continued to go through.
“I can just tell you my experience being there: the goal is to get taxes paid so county services can be provided,” Turner said.
Robinson was forced to borrow money to redeem his property and keep his childhood home.
“I guess I’m one of the fortunate ones if you’d like to look at it like that,” he said.
However, due to this drastic action, he is now behind on his property taxes once again.
Taking legal action to claim that he did not receive proper notice of the tax sale would take even more money from his dwindling funds.
“I can’t imagine not having any place to live or having to depend on someone else for my wellbeing, especially after working so hard and now being disabled,” he said.
The U.S. Sun has contacted the Shelby County Trustee Office for comment.
