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| Sunday, October 26, 2003 | (No comments posted.)
|Elderly widow's home sold for $300 at tax sale; said she never saw a notice for three years
BY MEGGEN LINDSAY
Times Staff Writer
June and Woodrow Hepler migrated to Indiana in the 1940s, lured by job prospects at the steel mills.
On the heels of the Depression, the newlyweds abandoned their impoverished lives in Pennsylvania and settled into public housing in Gary.
By 1950, they were able to buy their first -- and only -- home, a modest red house tucked at the end of a Lake Station cul-de-sac. When Woodrow died 30 years later, the couple had long since paid off their mortgage and raised two sons.
Now, at 91 and on a fixed income, June Hepler soon will be forced to pay rent to live in the house she owned for decades.
Her Cass Street home was sold for less than $400 at the Lake County Treasurer's Tax sale in March 2002 and the new owners, a small group of Chicago attorneys and investors, took title to the deed in April.
With almost no relatives in Indiana, and a clearly ailing memory, the grandmother of 10 largely has been left alone to wade through her financial predicament.
One grandson is nearby, but her sons are in Arkansas and Michigan, and, by all accounts, haven't visited in years because of illness or other circumstances.
Whether failed by her family or by an unaware Lake County government, the story of Hepler's case is delineated primarily from a paper trail of documents The Times has reviewed.
In an otherwise murky story, where family members and attorneys offer conflicting versions of what happened, one thing is devastatingly certain -- Hepler has lost her home.
In 1998, the one year she owed property taxes, Hepler failed to pay a $121.53 tax bill, and apparently never knew she was on the hook for even a dime.
"I'm sick of the whole bit. I just don't understand how they could take my house," said Hepler, sitting in a cramped living room, which, while tidy enough, reeked of neglect.
She said her husband told her to always pay her taxes, and she never saw any tax bill.
Certified notices sent to her came back unopened, according to the county, and after years of waiting, the county auctioned off the property, along with thousands of other parcels, at the biannual tax sale.
Chicago lawyer Lance Dale snapped up Hepler's house for $373.62, which amounts to the total cost of taxes and late fees incurred since 1998.
One granddaughter, Rebecca Hepler, 23, of Arkansas, has tried to figure out the situation for months. She said neither she nor her father, who is blind and recently suffered a stroke, knew about the delinquent taxes until it was too late, and fears her grandmother now will be evicted.
"Had we known, we would have paid the bill. It wasn't much," Rebecca Hepler said. "This just seems very wrong. She should not have lost her house for $300, and I really just don't think she understands."
Lake Station Mayor Shirley Wadding, who used to be Rebecca's dad's neighbor, said she thinks the house probably is worth upwards of $65,000.
"I know all of the procedures were followed correctly, but this bothers me so badly," she said.
Wadding has talked to relatives and recently visited Hepler.
"This is really sad. The folks grew up in this home and they are very upset," she said.
The county
County officials said they were unaware Hepler lost her house, because with thousands of properties for sale at the auctions, they have no way of knowing each owner's particular situation. Although those interviewed said they were saddened by Hepler's loss, it likely is too late to do anything.
"I really feel bad about this, because typically we help so many people. Once in a while, something does slip by," said Lake County Treasurer Peggy Holinga Katona.
"It's so ridiculous. Had we realized the situation earlier, we could have put her on a payment plan and had her paying back $10 a month or something. How unfortunate this is."
After inquiries by The Times, county attorney John Dull said he investigated the matter.
"Everything was handled correctly from the county's end," he said. "We checked out her tax exemptions to make sure there weren't any errors there. There weren't."
Dull said he would continue to review Hepler's case to make sure all the proper procedures were followed in the courts.
Although Katona said the county is not at fault, she said some type of safeguard to protect the elderly may need to be implemented to ensure this doesn't happen to anyone else.
"Maybe if there were a way to flag the property. But we have no real way of knowing who is living at every house or what their age is," she said.
Perhaps the county could require secondary notices to be sent to family members after an owner reaches a certain age, she suggested.
"I don't know what the solution is, but we certainly don't want anyone in our county to be pushed out on the streets."
The sale
When property owners fail to pay their taxes three consecutive times, the county treasurer's office attempts to sell a lien on the property for the amount of taxes due. The first treasurer's sale is in the fall, and a second sale for remaining property is in March. The bidding begins at the cost of back taxes, but often can rise by thousands.
The county sends out notices before the sale, and after a lien is purchased, the owner has the rest of the year to buy the property back for the taxes plus interest.
Dale was required to send Hepler notices, as was the county.
Tax bills were sent for three straight years before it went up for tax sale, in addition to all of the other notices, according to Katona.
She said Hepler's home initially was slated for tax sale in 2001, but was taken off, presumably because a family member called.
"Where were they? They should have been looking at all her finances before," Katona said.
The buyers
Although Dale, along with one other attorney, is listed on the legal notices, he said he was not the lead buyer and resented acting as a spokesperson.
Buying tax-delinquent properties is a legitimate investment business, he said, and he was getting frustrated by all the people he said have been calling him.
"This is a business, and that's the bottom line," he said. "Sometimes we lose money, sometimes we make money."
He said he and his partners sent all the proper notices to Hepler and heard nothing during the mandated waiting period before they could take title to the property.
Dale said he only heard from family members, and attorney Gary Mathews, two days before the eviction hearings. He said the family asked if he would rent the house to Hepler, but never asked for the property back.
Rebecca Hepler said she in fact has begged for her grandmother's house to be returned. She also said she fears her uncle, Robert Hepler, has Hepler's power of attorney and, so far, has been uninvolved.
Neither Matthews, nor Hepler's oldest son Robert, could be reached for comment.
Dale said he agreed to charge rent, which granddaughter Rebecca Hepler said is $400, and had made plans to fix up the house while the elderly woman still lived there. He also said he currently has no intention to evict her.
"We said we'd clean it up, make it like new for her. We haven't even sent the first rent bill yet," Dale said.
He also said he paid a neighbor to assist Hepler, although he said couldn't remember that person's name.
Dale said he's been so upset by family and media inquiries he might go back on the deal.
"I don't even know if I want to help anymore," he said.
Dale has no plans to return the house to Hepler or her family, and said the time for them to care was years ago.
"It's funny they never felt there was a need to help her out before. That place is ridiculous. She's living in squalor," he said.
"I'm just trying to distance myself from the whole thing."
Katona said she has seen other buyers change their minds when they witness a family's situation.
"This is pretty cold," Katona said. "They could just give the property back. It would be one thing if they had $30,000, or even $3,000 invested. But they didn't."
Meggen Lindsay can be reached at mlindsay@nwitimes.com or (219) 662-5339.
Thousands of parcels are sold every year at the Lake County Treasurer's Tax Sale in September and October. Any remaining property is sold at the second annual sale in March. The county makes millions off the sales, which allow prospective buyers to bid for property, with the opening bid starting at how many dollars are owed in back taxes.
Once properties are certified for tax sale, owners still can pay their property taxes or set up a payment plan with the treasurer.
Annual Fall Tax Sale
Year Properties Certified Properties Offered Properties Sold Surplus Paid to Lake County Total Amount Paid to Lake County (taxes and surplus)
1998 9,984 2,706 1,198 $14.3 million $17.3 million
1999 15,521 8,517 728 $6.2 million $7.9 million
2000 14,811 6,078 474 $4.3 million $5.6 million
2001 7,764 2,012 580 $2.4 million $3.8 million
2002 10,993 3,192 892 $5.5 million $8.1 million
2003 6,877 4,086 783 $5.4 million $7.5 million
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