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Losing home due to $6,000 back property taxes

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J

janhite

Guest
What is the name of your state? CA

Can anything be done to save the home of a 55 year old permantly disabled (mentally) man that owes $6,000 back property taxes? A Power To Sell is going to be filed July 1.
He lives in Desert Hot Springs, CA and his house is paid for. He has to live on the $740 he receives monthly from SSI. He has no resources to come up with $6,000 and no family to turn to. I have tried to find help but nothing seems to work. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You
 


abezon

Senior Member
Check to see if the county has a property tax abatement or deferral for seniors on fixed incomes. Contact the local pro bono law group. Also, see if you can get the newspaper or community interested. They could pressure the tax assessor or maybe people will just give him money to pay the taxes. Also, contact the state health/social services organization. They might have a one time benefit for mentally disabled people.

If the house is worth alot, it might be better to just sell it & buy something smaller with lower taxes.
 

HomeGuru

Senior Member
janhite said:
What is the name of your state? CA

Can anything be done to save the home of a 55 year old permantly disabled (mentally) man that owes $6,000 back property taxes? A Power To Sell is going to be filed July 1.
He lives in Desert Hot Springs, CA and his house is paid for. He has to live on the $740 he receives monthly from SSI. He has no resources to come up with $6,000 and no family to turn to. I have tried to find help but nothing seems to work. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You
**A: he should talk to a mortgage broker about a reverse mortgage or consider filing Chapter 13 and go with a 5 year payment plan. Can he rent out a room to raise additional cash. Or find an investor to pay the taxes current in an exchange for a % interest in the property. Look for a non profit organization to pay the taxes currrent in exchange for him deeding the property to the org. and giving him a lifetime estate.
 
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J

janhite

Guest
More Questions

Thank you for your reply. Can you tell me how to find contact numbers for the places you referred to? Do you know if he can still do these things after July 1st? Once they file is it a done deal or does he still have time to try to work things out somehow? I know the Reverse Mortage information refers to seniors over age 62. Does he qualify at 55 because he is disabled? I had one person tell me that Reverse Mortage would not be good because he would probably out live it. What would happen if he filed Chapter 13? Would all these things have to be completed before the 1st? One of his conditions is being extremely paranoid and he also suffers from severe anxiety attacks. He does not like to go out and being around people he doesn't know is very stressful to him. Giving up his home would be too much for him to handle.

Thanks for your help.
 
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T

theother

Guest
You can also try calling the tax collector to find out if they will accept a payment plan. I know at least some counties will let you have a five year plan to pay off defaulted taxes as long as you pay the current ones on time. They also should be able to tell you if you can stop the tax sale. The state of California has two programs to help low-income seniors and disabled with property taxes that I know of. One program results in a lien, the other doesn't but it isn't as helpful. These programs may help him in the future. Contact the state franchise tax board and the state controller's office for info on these programs. Good luck
 
J

janhite

Guest
Losing Home

Thank you for your reply. I guess I forgot to mention one thing. Regarding payments and paying his taxes.....he gets $740 a month from SSI. That's an annual income of $8,880. He has no money to pay property taxes, could you? He barely stays alive on this amount. After utilities and food there is nothing left. He has no car, and just to mention it....a year ago last March (on his birthday) he experienced a home invasion robbery where they stole almost everything in his house, left him hog tied for 4 hours and stabbed him in the foot. They caught the people that did it but did not recover his possessions. His biggest lose was his computer and all the peripherals. That was his life. It was the only was he could deal with life without having to go out and have his anxiety get the best of him.

I guess what it boils down to is: What can a disabled person do if they cannot pay back taxes, cannot make payments, and have no money to pay taxes period.

I might add that he does not accept food stamps. "They are for people in worse shape."
 
T

theother

Guest
Re: Losing Home

janhite said:
I guess what it boils down to is: What can a disabled person do if they cannot pay back taxes, cannot make payments, and have no money to pay taxes period.

I might add that he does not accept food stamps. "They are for people in worse shape."
I understand that he have very little income, but he (or I guess you) need to understand that he has to make an effort to help himself. There is no magical answer here. I am not personally aware of any program that will make his back taxes disappear even if he is disabled. There may be one out there, but I am not aware of it. There have been many good suggestions for starting points on this thread. He needs to look into what would work best for him and then he needs to take the necessary steps. If that means coming out of his comfort zone and taking in a boarder or taking food stamps to free up some money or taking a chance on outiving his reverse mortgage, then he is going to need to decide whether saving his home is worth it. Like another poster said, he should contact the local/county/state social agencies to see if they can counsel him about these choices and also if they have programs for seniors/disabled that may help him. They also will be able to point him toward low income law services. A good place to find the contact numbers would be your county's website or the government (blue pages) in the front of your phone book.

Like I said before, I would contact state controller and state franchise tax board to see if their programs can help him. It is also very important that he get in contact with the tax collector in his county. In fact, that would be the first thing that I would advise. It is my understanding that he can stop his house from being sold by entering into a payment agreement before his property becomes subject to the power of sale. He will only be required to come up with a portion of the defaulted amount. It is a fact of life that he may have to beg, borrow, or otherwise find a way to come up with this money. Even if he cannot make the other payments, I believe he will have another five years to figure something out. I also think that you can extend that by entering into a second installment agreement. He needs to contact the collector to find out if that is accurate and what he needs to do. I understand that this may not be the best solution for him, but he has really limited his choices by not taking care of this situation in the five years that he has been defaulted. You are not giving people a lot to work with when you wait until the very last minute and then say that you cannot come up with any money at all. The bottom line is that if he is in such a bad way that he cannot be a part of his solution, then he may have to sell his house. We all do things we do not want to do. That's life. Good luck.
 
J

janhite

Guest
Easier Said Than Done!

Well spoken! But easier for you to say than for him to do. I appreciate your advice and will check the places you suggested. If you think of anything else, please let me know. What do you think of Chapter 13. Would that work?

Thanks again,

Jan
 

I AM ALWAYS LIABLE

Senior Member
Re: Easier Said Than Done!

janhite said:



If you think of anything else, please let me know. What do you think of Chapter 13. Would that work?

=================================

My response:

What are the two things in life that we cannot escape?

That's right.

IAAL
 

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