Last year, Massachusetts Democratic state Reps. Tommy Vitolo and Jeff Roy saw a newspaper story about two brothers in their state who had almost lost their home due to unpaid property taxes. That was followed by another article this year featuring a New Bedford woman, recovering from COVID-19, who slept in her car when her home was taken for the same reason.
While relatively rare, the plight of the homeowners highlighted in those stories is not confined to Massachusetts.
About a dozen states allow homeowners who don’t pay their property taxes to lose not only their houses, but also the years of payments they have made on the property, known as equity, according to the Pacific Legal Foundation, a libertarian group that has filed suit on behalf of many homeowners in this position, including those in Massachusetts.
