"Everyone agrees that people should not be losing homes that are worth far more than their unpaid water bills or other debts. And if they do lose them, they should be paid the difference between the sale price and the debt—as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Tyler v. Hennepin County, Minnesota, in 2023."
"It's a very difficult balancing act, tax lien sale expert Jennifer Polovetsky told The Real Deal last month. OK, maybe it is hard. But still. This has taken forever. The issue dates back to 1996, when Mayor Rudy Giuliani had the city begin selling property liens to investors because it was lousy at collecting debt and managing buildings it had seized."
"Two months ago, the City Council passed bills that could eventually allow a land trust rather than private investors to foreclose on indebted properties. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who supports that effort, this week suspended the lien sale for six months to review the process, which he had campaigned against."
New York City's tax lien sale system has operated with significant flaws for nearly three decades, beginning when Mayor Rudy Giuliani implemented it in 1996 as a debt collection mechanism. The process has repeatedly failed to protect homeowners from losing properties worth substantially more than their unpaid debts. Recent legislative action by the City Council passed bills enabling a land trust to potentially foreclose on indebted properties instead of private investors. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned against the system, suspended lien sales for six months to review the process. The core issue remains balancing effective debt collection with preventing unnecessary home foreclosures, particularly when property values far exceed outstanding debts.
Read at therealdeal.com
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