Dilapidated Homes Sold By County Officials At Tax Foreclosure Sales Are Subsequently Being Demolished By Order Of Local City Officials, Leaving Unwitting Homebuyers Caught In Middle

In Jackson, Michigan, MLive reports:

• Terrence Hill had spent months working on a new home he thought he'd bought in a Jackson County tax foreclosure sale in September.
  
  He'd sunk $3,000 in the home on Maple Avenue — putting on a new roof, installing brand new carpeting and putting up new drywall. Just new windows would have completed the home, which he planned to rent out.
  
  On Friday, Jan., 18, Hill discovered the city had turned utilities off and claimed the home was on its demolition list. Just three days later, he headed over to the property, only to see a crane tearing down the home he'd worked on for four months. “I just couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I was shocked.”
  
  Hill isn't alone in his confusion.
  
  Homeowners who think they are helping the city tackle blight by purchasing foreclosed homes are finding themselves in a much different fight.
  
  Several homeowners who say they've bought houses in a Jackson County tax sale are seeing their new homes demolished, or scheduled to be knocked down.

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• Although the properties have been purchased from the county, city officials say the structures on them are governed by city housing codes and state building codes.
  
  Buyers also only purchase the deed to a property at tax auctions, this allows the city to demolish them, even if the property is sold by the county, officials said.

For more, see Jackson residents upset over demolition of city homes purchased in county tax sale.