A Pennsylvania judge has ruled that a widow was given ample notice to pay $6.30 in unpaid interest before her $280,000 house was sold at a tax auction three years ago, the Associated Press reported.
Eileen Battisti's request to reverse the September 2011 sale of her home outside Aliquippa in western Pennsylvania was turned down by the judge's decision last week.
"I paid everything, and didn't know about the $6.30," Battisti, who still lives in the house, said. "For the house to be sold just because of $6.30 is crazy."
After ordering an evidentiary hearing earlier, last week's ruling was made. However, Battisti plans to appeal to Commonwealth Court on Monday.
"Beaver County Common Pleas Judge Gus Kwidis wrote that the county tax claim bureau complied with notification requirements in state law before the auction," the AP reported. "She had previously owed other taxes, but at the time of the sale she owed just $235, including other interest and fees."
"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."
If the following appeals remain unsuccessful, most of that money, from the property sold for about $116,000, will be paid to Battisti.
Based on the law, the judge got the decision right, Joe Askar, Beaver County's chief solicitor, said.
"The county never wants to see anybody lose their home, but at the same time the tax sale law, the tax real estate law, doesn't give a whole lot of room for error, either," Askar said.
Battisti said her husband handled the paperwork for the property's taxes before he passed away in 2004.
"It's bad - she had some hard times, I guess her husband kind of took care of a lot of that stuff," Askar said. "It seemed that she was having a hard time coping with the loss of her husband - that just made it set in a little more."
A phone message was not returned by an attorney for the purchaser on Monday, according to the AP.
