Court order reverses sale of Chicago woman's home over property tax mistake
A Chicago woman's Morgan Park home was sold for delinquent taxes because of a clerical error. Now taxpayers are on the hook for thousands to fix her peculiar predicament.
Robin McElroy paid her property tax bills on time for more than a decade, only to be told her home had been "sold for delinquent taxes."
Thankfully, McElroy said her ordeal had a "very happy ending," but in the long run, she still has a lot of questions on behalf of all homeowners in cook county.
"Why wasn't this avoided?" she asked.
Five months ago, the CBS News Chicago Investigators reported on McElroy's property tax troubles.
Back then, she was struggling to wrap her head around a letter that said her Morgan Park home had been "sold for delinquent taxes."
But McElroy had receipts showing she was up-to-date on her tax payments, so why would her property be up for grabs? It turned out her address and PIN number didn't match; the pin was for a different unit in her townhome complex.
"All the taxes that I was paying was going to the next unit," she said.
Both the Cook County Assessor's office and Cook County Treasurer's office maintained it wasn't their mistake.
The blame instead was placed on the townhome developer who put "incorrect legal descriptions" in the original deed.
"People shouldn't lose their homes or be threatened to lose their homes, their cars, due to human error," McElroy said.
We know how this happened, but how do we know it won't happen again? Is anything being done to prevent future mix-ups? The Cook County Treasurer's office repeatedly declined to comment for this story.
Back to McElroy's happy ending, a court order a few weeks ago confirmed McElroy is the proper owner of her home and doesn't need to move.
"I had to get on TV in desperation to save my home, and if it wasn't for Channel 2 answering my email, God knows I probably wouldn't even be owning my home," she said.
Now for the bad news. That judgement also covers McElroy's lawyer fees and pays off the company that was accidentally allowed to buy her home. The mistake will cost taxpayers more than $66,000 to reimburse the company that had been granted the deed to her home after it was sold at the tax sale, as well as McElroy's attorney's fees.
"It's sad that we're the ones, the consumers, we're the ones that are paying these bills," McElroy said.
McElroy was told such a costly mistake is rare. She hopes that's true and that no one else will walk in her shoes.
The Treasurer's and Assessor's offices said they did nothing wrong in this case. No one would say if their systems are being reviewed for other mistaken tax sales.
