NY Judge Gives Go-Ahead To Tax Foreclosure Sale Despite Property Owner's Failure To Receive Notice Of Action While In County Jail On Unrelated Matter

In Canandaigua, New York, the Daily Messenger reports:

• A property that was slated to be sold at Ontario County’s foreclosure auction May 6 escaped the initial sale. But now it will be sold, following a judge’s decision. The owner of 4530 Blossom Road in Gorham sued the county “over notice issues,” county Assistant Attorney Gary Curtiss said after a meeting Wednesday, [...]. Representing the property owner was attorney David Whitcomb.(1) [...] The outcome of the recent case is “unfortunate,” said Whitcomb, [...].

• In the case of the Gorham property, the owner maintained she never received the notices from Ontario County warning her about the back taxes owed, said Whitcomb. The woman was in Ontario County Jail, serving time for driving while intoxicated, he said. The county’s certified letters sent to her address came back unclaimed and letters sent by regular mail never came back, he said. The woman was in a county facility and the county should have known she didn’t get the notices, said Whitcomb. Within days of hearing arguments in the case earlier this month, state Supreme Court Judge Craig Doran ruled the county could auction off the property. The lot with ranch home at the corner of Blossom Road and Summit Parkway, assessed at $61,500, will go for its highest bid of $32,000.

For more, see Property to be sold by county after lawsuit.

Go here and go here for other posts on foreclosures involving faulty notifications to property owners.

(1) Whitcomb also represented a property owner last year who sued the county over a foreclosure. But in that case, the owner won and was able to keep his parcel. A panel of judges with the state Appellate Division’s Fourth Department overturned a previous ruling that would have allowed the county to auction the parcel over $24 in interest owed by the property owner. foreclosure faulty notice