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Supreme Court sides with Michigan county in a tax foreclosure case
Justice Samuel Alito said counties may use the tax-sale price as the compensation baseline when a foreclosure auction is fairly conducted.
- On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled against the Pung family, rejecting their bid for fair-market compensation after a tax foreclosure and holding that homeowners are entitled only to surplus proceeds, not total market value.
- Isabella County seized the family's ranch-style home to satisfy a $2,242 tax debt, selling it for $76,008; the buyer later flipped the property for $195,000, prompting the Pungs to argue the forfeiture was unconstitutional.
- Writing for the Court, Justice Samuel Alito stated the fair-market-value theory would impose "unprecedented burdens" on local governments, rejecting arguments that the forfeiture violated the Eighth or Fifth Amendments.
- Regarding the foreclosure process, the Court sent the case back to lower courts to determine if the sale was fair, given the Pungs' argument that Michigan's system artificially depressed the sale price.
- Following a 2023 Supreme Court decision that counties cannot keep tax sale proceeds beyond the owner's debt, advocates like the AARP highlight that states such as Oregon, Maine, and Massachusetts already require properties to be marketed at fair value.
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Supreme Court Sides With Michigan County in Tax Foreclosure Dispute
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 23 ruled unanimously that a Michigan county does not have to compensate a homeowner whose home was sold for unpaid taxes based on the property’s hypothetical fair market value. The case came three years after the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Tyler v. Hennepin County, Minnesota, that a county wronged a grandmother when it forced the sale of her condominium over an unpaid tax debt and kept sale proceeds that fa…
·New York, United States
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Associated Press News+6 Reposted by 6 other sources
Supreme Court sides with Michigan county in a tax foreclosure case
The Supreme Court has rejected an effort to reshape tax foreclosure sales to allow the original owners to keep more money when homes are sold to recoup unpaid taxes.
·New York, United States
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Total News Sources18
Leaning Left5Leaning Right5Center8Last UpdatedBias Distribution44% Center
Bias Distribution
- 44% of the sources are Center
44% Center
L 28%
C 44%
R 28%
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