Foreclosure lists long, grim

Foreclosure lists long, grim
Counties publish property tax delinquencies
November 24, 2007

BY KATHLEEN GRAY

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

From the well-heeled streets of the Pointes to the desolate neighborhoods of Detroit, thousands of people are facing foreclosure of their properties because they haven't paid taxes for at least two years.

In 121 printed pages of the Sunday Free Press, Wayne County Treasurer Raymond Wojtowicz listed more than 18,000 properties across Wayne County facing foreclosure. Notices sent to homeowners since March have whittled the list from 161,000 properties that had been delinquent on tax payments.


The advertisement will run the next two Sundays. The printed pages cost the county more than $400,000, and are required by law. It's just one more way the county tries to make sure property owners know that they're facing foreclosure.
"No one should ever be embarrassed if they have some debt," Wojtowicz said. "We all get into a scrape every so often, and during these tough economic times, we want to do everything we can to keep people in their homes."

Property owners can go to an administrative hearing on Jan. 7, 8 or 9 to make arrangements to pay their delinquent taxes. The hearings begin at 9 a.m. at the International Center, 400 Monroe, Suite 320, in Detroit.

Once that process is done, Wojtowicz estimates, the list likely will be cut down to less than 4,000 properties and up to 90% of those will be vacant or abandoned. Then, employees from the Treasurer's Office will begin to knock on doors of owner-occupied homes to make sure the owners know they are on the list, so as few property owners as possible lose their assets.

In Oakland County, 8,300 properties are facing foreclosure because of delinquent taxes. At the end of December, the county will publish 19,757 names in the Observer/Eccentric newspapers of people who have had some sort of interest in the property over the years.

"That's the largest number of tax foreclosures we've had," Oakland County Treasurer Patrick Dohany said. "It is an issue, putting people's name in the paper, but it gets people identified."

Oakland's tax foreclosure hearings will be held at 9 a.m. Feb. 13 in the Oakland County Courthouse, 1200 North Telegraph, Pontiac.

In Macomb County, 1,700 properties facing foreclosure will be published in the Macomb Daily on three consecutive Thursdays in December.

"That's about a third more than last year," Macomb County Treasurer Ted Wahby said. "And so far, it's worked really well. We've always collected 100% of the delinquent taxes."

Wahby will meet with property owners facing foreclosure at 10 a.m. Jan. 8 at his office, 1 S. Main, Mt. Clemens. The foreclosure hearings will be held at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 1 in Judge Matt Switalski's chambers, 40 N. Main, in Mt. Clemens.