One of the more important yet most overlooked and misunderstood features of American government and governance is the fact that a vast amount of power resides at the very bottom, and local officials often have discretionary powers that would be vested in higher level officials in other countries. This is a good thing in many respects, but the other side of the coin is that you have totally incompetent yokels wielding the power of petty kings.<p>The case in question is an absolute disgrace and an excellent example of the failings of the American system of government in its present state of (dys)function. I would argue that it should be much, much harder to evict people for any reason, and that seizing private property for trivial reasons should be near impossible. Many here would agree, but in this specific case it is purely a local matter.<p>Sub/exurban Detroit cannot be compared to Singapore. And the problem has little to do with global population or overpopulation, but it is curiously linked to population density. Jürgen Habermas and others have written extensively about the phenomenon of 'Verrechtlichung' or 'juridification', i.e. the process by which an ever increasing amount of human interaction and social and economic life is subjected to legal regulation and codification, corresponding roughly to increases in population density that came with urbanisation, industrialisation, and the advent of urban modernity from the late 19th century on. But that is really not directly related to the given issue exept in a rather abstract way.
Meanwhile in San Francisco, some rich assholes that failed to pay property tax for <i>decades</i> got the tax sale of their street reversed years after it happened: <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/11/28/rich-san-francisco-homeowners-get-sold-off-street-back/" rel="nofollow">https://www.mercurynews.com/2017/11/28/rich-san-francisco-ho...</a><p>Different rules for the rich as always.
I just wonder how many unfair (and in this case, quite frankly bullshit) collisions there are codified in law that we rarely encounter. I don't believe the laws are perfect, or that they even can be perfect (especially since you're often catering to different groups with conflicting interests, and oftentimes more than just two). But as our populations grow, our bureaucracies slow, and more and more problems like this will manifest. I fear it's going to become more like trying to argue your case against Google for why your YouTube video was taken down without explanation - tough shit, good luck.<p>I have an unfounded fear that overpopulation is humanity's greatest threat, and I think we're way past capacity.
I don't know how it works in Detroit, but in Texas where I am a lawyer, it is very hard to lose your home to property tax foreclosure. First, the property taxes are on the web, so the homeowner can go anytime and see how much they owe, and in some cases can pay online. Then, if you are delinquent, you are sent many notices that the homeowner must ignore. Then, even after the property sells at auction, the homeowner can redeem the property for the unpaid taxes for up to a year, again after receiving many notices.
From a month ago: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21464572" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21464572</a>
Cases like this make my blood boil. It is really depressing when state can commit great injustice towards constituents without any redress and there is no special power that can fix plain and obvious wrongs right in place (well presidents pardoning their cronys are the exception).
While this is obviously unjust, I'm baffled by why someone paying an already delinquent property tax bill with clear risks of foreclosure wouldn't err on the side of overpaying.<p>When you overpay your property taxes, they send you a check for the balance. I accidentally overpaid mine this year by $10, the county mailed back a check in that amount with no further information or interaction required. I hadn't even realized the error until receiving it unannounced.
What the f Michigan... I'm assuming it's different in other states?<p>Usually yeah the government forces you to sell your property and pay the debt, but any extra from the sale is the property owner's... Which makes way more sense.<p>How can you even call this ownership if your house is sold <i>and you get nothing</i> if you don't pay your property tax...
For those homeowners in SV (at minimum), remember that your first installment of your 2019-20 is delinquent after Tuesday, so pay (or postmark) by then.
Speaking of property taxes:<p><i>‘Dear God, help us all’: Utah taxpayers stung after home valued at [$987 Megabucks] in ‘horrific’ typo</i><p><a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/dear-god-help-us-all-utah-taxpayers-stung-after-home-valued-at-14-billion-in-horrific-typo/news-story/61d618ab32e0d24ff537b5649b4d2993" rel="nofollow">https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/dear-g...</a>
Property taxes are a special form of BS: here's a fine for using the money you earned and we didn't seize from you in other taxes for merely parsing an asset.