Rich SF residents shock: Someone bought their street (tax lien, insurance)

[Three Wolves In Snow]

Originally Posted by Macrina

I'm not calling them scammers. I think the word is opportunist and what they are doing is obviously legal. But to my mind, they do look quite gleeful. It's possible they are young enough to not think of the ramifications. What would be great is if they would make an offer to the homeowners for the price of the unpaid taxes, plus penalties, plus say.....$50 grand. That give them a modest return, but would buy them an ocean of great publicity and good will that could have priceless outcomes.

The fact remains that they are and will be profiting on a mistake, or several. Wealthy property owners such as these wouldn't have withheld paying the taxes because they were cheap individuals. It was a negligence of a proper action that it wasn't dealt with after the very first notice from the city/county. That's my opinion until I know differently.

In my view, there's a high quotient of morals and ethics here to either be upheld or ignored. I'm guessing it will be ignored.

I just don't feel good about it, and I think there will be a group who agree with me. I simply feel sympathetic towards all of the individual homeowners, even those at least some of these are who made the mistake. This situation apparently has been years and years in the forming, the original failure to pay the taxes began...how many years ago?

And...I think it could be found that the city was negligent in their attempts to collect the taxes. Also, I'm guessing some due process of serving notice of the auction was not followed. In fact it could be mostly the city's fault; we just don't know at this point.

.

I'd be gleeful too. The chances of this being overturned at this late date are slim to none. The rich in SF weren't paying their taxes. This young Asian couple of San Jose now owns their street. If I were them, I'd never sell. And I'd be laughing every single day.

As for the homeowners whining about the auction, there were dozens of others at the auction, it wasn't private. If all of those other people could find the auction, so could they.

Who cares, go Lam and Cheng!

[Macrina]

Originally Posted by Three Wolves In Snow

I'd be gleeful too. The chances of this being overturned at this late date are slim to none. The rich in SF weren't paying their taxes. This young Asian couple of San Jose now owns their street. If I were them, I'd never sell. And I'd be laughing every single day.

As for the homeowners whining about the auction, there were dozens of others at the auction, it wasn't private. If all of those other people could find the auction, so could they.

Who cares, go Lam and Cheng!

Let's be specific about these unpaid taxes. These were taxes only on the Commons and street of that gated community. Which cost $14 per year, per owner.

All of the private property taxes have obviously been routinely paid all these years by each homeowner. To my way of thinking, I'd be feeling far differently about the homeowners if they hadn't paid their private taxes and then were complaining about the results of that failure.

.

[City Guy997S]

Clerical oversight......tax bill was being sent to an accountants address that was no longer used by the HOA. While these people gambled with their $90,000 that the score will payoff I suspect they will have an expensive legal battle looming. Lawsuits have beaten the underdog with exorbitant fees in the past rather than the actual legal right or wrong.

If the buyers have an option to make a quick buck I would think that is the smart play. If they get greedy those landowners will dig in for a big battle. Paid 90, sell for 270-360K and move on.

[ringwise]

Originally Posted by Macrina

I'm not calling them scammers. I think the word is opportunist and what they are doing is obviously legal. But to my mind, they do look quite gleeful. It's possible they are young enough to not think of the ramifications. What would be great is if they would make an offer to the homeowners for the price of the unpaid taxes, plus penalties, plus say.....$50 grand. That give them a modest return, but would buy them an ocean of great publicity and good will that could have priceless outcomes.

The fact remains that they are and will be profiting on a mistake, or several. Wealthy property owners such as these wouldn't have withheld paying the taxes because they were cheap individuals. It was a negligence of a proper action that it wasn't dealt with after the very first notice from the city/county. That's my opinion until I know differently.

In my view, there's a high quotient of morals and ethics here to either be upheld or ignored. I'm guessing it will be ignored.

I just don't feel good about it, and I think there will be a group who agree with me. I simply feel sympathetic towards all of the individual homeowners, even those at least some of these are who made the mistake. This situation apparently has been years and years in the forming, the original failure to pay the taxes began...how many years ago?

And...I think it could be found that the city was negligent in their attempts to collect the taxes. Also, I'm guessing some due process of serving notice of the auction was not followed. In fact it could be mostly the city's fault; we just don't know at this point.

.

It's pretty immoral and unethical to fail to pay taxes for that long. Just because you're rich you should get a pass? I don't get a pass when I fail to pay taxes, even if it was somebody else's "fault".

[Fiona8484]

While I do not feel for the well to do homeowners on this street, the words that come to mind to describe this couple are parasitic and scum. These two individuals illustrate everything that is wrong with the Bay Area.

Really hoping the city voids this sale!

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Let's pretend for a minute that this same situation was playing out in a low income area.

A bunch of people buy property in a condo complex and pay HOA dues. Same exact situation where the board of the HOA must be populated by homeowners who may not have the knowledge or time to really understand the financials of the HOA.

This HOA hires a management company. At some point the management company either quits or is fired. Now, all along, the HOA has a president and a secretary and a treasurer, who all must be homeowners - but none of whom have to know diddly about finances or managing property.

So, they normally have some kind of agenda, which prompts them to "run" for being on their HOA board. These are usually people who hate the fact that some people don't cut their lawns or put tomato plants on their patios. But, these are the people who are now in complete charge of the thousands of dollars collected by the condo owners.

The HOA does hire a management company, but nobody qualified is doing any kind of oversight of the management company.

So, the management company is collecting their fee, sending a rep to show up at the lengthy evening HOA meetings, who presents documents saying the pool area needs work and they have someone who can do it for X amount of dollars and asks for a vote.

The members who are tired and sorry they got on the board simply say, yeah, sure, okay, sounds good.

Seriously, this is how this goes - I owned a condo in Davis and got on the board because I was unhappy with things, and this is real life on the board of an HOA.

The management company or even the rep they send, could easily have a sweetheart deal with someone who does pool maintenance or asphalt paving work, etc., etc. They are just ripe for the picking to be ripped off.

And it would be so easy for documents or contracts to fall through the cracks. Where the board turned over and the management company quit or got fired - and nobody noticed or cared that the financials were wonky - because the taxes weren't being paid. They got on the board to change some rule or amenity, either got it or didn't, then quit and there was another election.

This is the same thing that happens whether you are rich or poor in a HOA.

So, no, I can't get on board to want to crucify rich people who are victims in this situation anymore than I would be if they were dirt poor.

The city had an obligation to let these homeowners know a tax wasn't being paid. They failed to do that for 30 years. When whoever in charge now decided to sent this to auction, it's my opinion they absolutely had a right to make sure these property owners were aware of that auction.

It seriously makes me wonder about fraud in the city department. Was some person in that department secretly having some gleeful moment over the fact that rich people in SF might lose their gated street?

I bet whoever made that decision is under some serious scrutiny at the city offices right now. The city attorney is shaking his/her head. If the city is smart, they'll quickly just admit an error and get it over with.

At any rate, rich or poor, this was not the property owners' fault in my opinion. But, let this be a perfect example of why you should avoid buying property with a HOA like the plague.

[phantompilot]

I'd set a fee of $1000/year/vehicle as a "gate pass", then sit back and roll in the dough.
You know they probably have at least 60 vehicles in there - among 35 homes.

[WizardOfRadical]

Saw on the news, owners were definately not born in America.

[Fiona8484]

Originally Posted by WizardOfRadical

Saw on the news, owners were definately not born in America.

I'm not a Trump fan, but gee, notice who he never talks about sending back. I wish USA would institute the 15% foreign buyer tax like Vancouver has.

If I have to side with someone in this, I would side with the homeowners on the street. I hope they squash this couple like the bugs that they are.

[bmw335xi]

Basically its okay for a non-wealthy person to be a piece of sh*t but hell freezes over if it's a wealthy person acting like a piece of sh*t