Sheriff Sales of Homes Are Based On Faulty Assessments

In a phone conversation recently between Allegheny County Executive Jim

Roddey, and S.T.O.P.’s Bob Logue, Mr. Roddey said, “We have good (assessment)

numbers on high end hom es---$500,000, a million and up. But we don’t have good

assessment numbers on low end homes.” (This is after spending $30 million to $40

million to fix the Allegheny County Property Tax System

Logue’s response was, “That means you are selling people’s homes at sheriff sales

based on faulty numbers. And, that is despicable.”

S.T.O.P. (Stop Taxing Our Properties) was organized to halt one of the most

scurrilous injustices in the history of Pennsylvania and the United States. That is

the confiscation and sale of the homesteads and farmsteads (primary residences) of

individuals and families due to unpaid property taxes. The number of sheriff sales

continues to rise in counties across Pennsylvania. Thousands of homeowners are

facing eviction which means:

· Loss of their residence,

· Disruption of their lives and that of their family,

· Loss of most of any equity they have accrued in the home,

· Potential serious damage to their physical and mental health,

· And damage to their credit record for from 7 to 15 years.

Even many of those homes being foreclosed upon by financial institutions could

be saved if the homeowner did not have a monthly tax escrow payment of several

hundred dollars as part of their mortgage payment.

Every person reading this is one major illness or financial setback from eviction.

Senate Bills 717-718 and House Bills 1572 and 1573 would address

this crisis by abolishing ALL real estate taxes on homesteads and farmsteads in

Pennsylvania. These taxes would be replaced by other taxes based on one’s ability

to pay. Senate Bill 816 would permit the Constitutional Amendment process to be

moved forward more rapidly under the constitution’s emergency provisions.

Ask your PA Senator or Representative to secure for you a copy of this

legislation. And join the statewide effort to stop sheriff sales of homes—often the

residences of the elderly, widows, widowers, disabled persons, low income

workers, single parent families and those who have suffered job loss or cutback.

Since we don’t have good assessment ‘numbers’ on low end (lower cost) homes,

the sheriff sales are based on faulty assessments. Many of those who are

victimized and lose their home to sheriff sale do not have the financial resources to

hire an attorney or appraiser to fight back. This system victimizes the most

vulnerable and must be abolished.