Judge Upholds Sale Of Woman’s Home Prompted By Unpaid $6.30 Tax Bill

A woman who’s been fighting for home since it was sold in 2011 at auction has suffered a setback after a judge ruled the sale can stand. She failed to pay a $6.30 interest fee on a late tax bill, but has been living in the home since its sale in an effort to keep it.

A Pennsylvania judge ruled that the woman had plenty of notice and time to pay up on that interest before her $280,000 house ws soled at a tax auction, reports the Associated Press. She’d been trying to reverse the sale.

“I paid everything, and didn’t know about the $6.30,” she said. “For the house to be sold just because of $6.30 is crazy.”

The judge explained in the decision that the county tax claim bureau did exactly what was required of it before the house finally ended up at auction.

“There is no doubt that (she) had actual receipt of the notification of the tax upset sale on July 7, 2011, and Aug. 16, 2011,” the judge wrote. “Moreover, on Aug. 12, 2011, a notice of sale was sent by first class mail and was not returned.”

The woman had said that her husband had handled the home’s property taxes until his death in 2004, leaving her to manage things on her own. At the time her house sold, she owed only about $235 in taxes.

She told the court that since her husband’s death, she “has struggled to assume responsibility for the financial matters previously handled by her husband,” in addition to “physical and emotional challenges that have caused her to be tardy in paying taxes.”

She’s planning on appealing to the Commonwealth Court, which had ordered an evidentiary hearing that led to this most recent ruling.

Judge OKs decision to sell widow’s home over $6.30 debt [Associated Press]

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