Can't pay your property taxes? Get your house foreclosed on...

[dkf]

Well those too cute bankers are buying up tax collections so they can foreclose your possibly paid up house. If taxes go up to pay for local schools this is even more likely. Is this the way they turn raising taxes into another avenue to take property from the not so well off? Beware rising property taxes, as it might mean the loss of your house.

[Egalitariat]

1. If that happens, and you need a place to stay, you can not pay your income taxes

And then you'd go to jail.

[ThomWV]

2. I have been to many tax auctions and I've never seen a bank represented at one.

[dkf]

3. Apparently this is something new...

They are buying the tax collections from the municipalities.

Here's the article...

"What: Nearly a dozen major banks and hedge funds — including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase & Co. — are quietly setting up high-powered collection agencies to go after homeowners who fall behind on property taxes.
How: The Wall Street firms buy local-government rights to collect delinquent taxes. Some states allow private collectors to take as much as 18 percent interest, along with escalating legal fees. They can foreclose for nonpayment too."

http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/Daily-Outrage--Wall-Street-sidles-into-property-tax-collection-105231358.html

[ThomWV]

4. I have no idea on earth what that Opinion Piece is talking about, its incoherent

But I can tell you, in a nutshell, exactly how it works here and who the players are.

First it is the Counties that have the ability to collect real property taxes, they do it all from appraisal to collection, the posting delinquencies (in local news papers) to holding the auctions, though it is the county court that will complete the deal.

OK, your taxes come due and you don't pay. You've got a year to pay up (with interest) or at the end of the year the property goes on the auction block. After you're a year delinquent the property will be sold at public auction, on the 'court house steps' (usually done inside, often in a meeting room or hallway). On Auction day anyone can go and bid, but if you are familiar with the local rich, this is the day you will see them in person. Hundreds of properties will be auctioned off to the highest bidder in a few hours. OK, you've "bought" a property, now what? Well, the actual owner of the property has one year from that date to contact you and buy back their property, for your purchase price plus 1% interest per month since the auction. However if the owner has not redeemed the property within the year you can then take the tax auction receipt to the court and they will authorize the transfer to the poperty over to you - the person who bought it at auction.

That's how it works, in very simple language.