![]() When Tallage bought the tax lien on 28 Caro Street, the market value of Meaney’s house was more than $270,000. I never saw anything, I had no idea this was going on.” “We were in the middle of a family medical crisis at the time. “I did not know,” Meaney said emphatically. A Boston-based investment company called Tallage LLC bought the tax lien in the spring of 2011 from the city of Worcester for $1,052.84 - the amount Meaney owed after interest and late fees assessed by the city. The unpaid water and sewer bills on Meaney’s house at 28 Caro Street totaled $492.51. And if this could happen to me, it could happen to anybody,” Meaney said. “I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. Meaney says he assumed the bills were covered by the escrow account he set up with his lender. A financial planner who owns four rental properties on a side street in Worcester, he almost lost all the houses a few years ago because he failed to pay his water and sewer bills. But looking back, he’s now concerned about the impact on some taxpayers caught in the system his legislation helped create. He said at the time, it was considered a creative revenue generator. “The budget crisis of the early 90s had left us strapped for bringing money back to cities and towns,” said Daniel Bosely, a former legislator from North Adams who wrote the state law. Helping communities recoup lost revenue is what motivated lawmakers back in the mid-90s to enable this practice of selling tax liens to investors. One Boston company buying up these tax liens has more than doubled its rate of foreclosures against Massachusetts property owners over the last four years, according to Land Court records obtained by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting.Ī 1996 state law allows the practice, which has drawn criticism from consumer advocates and some lawmakers pushing for reforms that would take a big cut of the profits to investors buying up tax liens and improve the notification process for delinquent taxpayers. In tax lien foreclosures, property owners lose everything, including any equity they had. If those property owners fail to pay back the debt, investors can sometimes reap big profits, foreclosing on the real estate in Land Court. Tax collectors are happy to recover all of the money they are owed, and investors can collect up to 16 percent interest from homeowners whose titles were sold off. The tax bill for a property is based upon the fair market value of that asset.įactors taken into consideration by assessors when calculating the value of a property include: the property's location, what it is currently used for, the lot size, as well as building size.As dozens of cities and towns in Massachusetts turn to for-profit companies to go after delinquent taxpayers and recover lost revenue, the consequences for some property owners and even renters can be unforgiving, leading to financial losses and in some cases foreclosures and evictions.Ĭash-strapped cities of Worcester, Lowell, New Bedford, Pittsfield and Quincy sold off more than 1,300 tax liens to third-party investors in the past five years, recovering nearly $10 million. Taxable property in Massachusetts is assigned by an assessor to one of four classes: commercial, industrial, open space, or residential. If you're wondering what is the mill rate or what is the property tax rate in any town in Massachusetts, you've come to the right page. Property tax rates are also referred to as property mill rates. Maine Mill Rates How Are Massachusetts Property Tax Rates Calculated? This is no different from most other New England states, like New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Massachusetts property real estate taxes are calculated by multiplying the property's value by the location's real estate tax. ![]() Massachusetts Property Tax Rates | MA Town Property Taxes Massachusetts Property Tax RatesĬlick here for a map of Massachusetts with additional tax rate information
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