Upstate NY County Refuses To Give Back Home Even After Homeowner Forks Over Back Taxes

WETM-TV Channel 18 in Elmira, New York reports:

• A Schuyler County man has been ordered to leave his home after he didn't pay his property taxes. But even though he's since paid off his debts, county lawmakers say they are not obligated to give him back his home.

[...]

• [He] assumed that as long as he paid his back taxes in full before the property went to auction, he could get the property back. [...] He would have been right, up until Monday night [Sept. 10]. That's when county lawmakers passed a new resolution which states that when the county seizes a property, lawmakers are not obligated to hand it back over to the former owner if that person pays their back taxes.

• [He] paid off the almost $7,000 he owed in back taxes to the county on Friday [Sept. 7]. But it was three days later that the county passed their new resolution. According to some county officials, [he] was not "grandfathered in" because at the time the resolution was passed, the county still held the deed to the Montour House. [He] was never promised that he would get it back.

For more, see Village of Montour Falls Wants to Buy Montour House, County Evicts Former Owner.

Editorial Note

The upstate New York city of Lockport also made the news recently for a similar situation (see Lockport owners are not allowed to pay back taxes, keep property). One difference, however, was that in the Lockport story, city officials reportedly refused to accept the money for the back taxes from the property owner in exchange for a redemption of the property.

If I'm reading the Schuyler County story correctly, the county officials actually accepted the homeowner's money for the back taxes to the tune of $7,000, but still refuse to give him back his house.