A Chicago woman is fighting to keep her home after a government mix-up forced authorities to sell it for “delinquent taxes.”
Robin McElroy bought a home in Chicago's Morgan Park neighborhood in 2012. She said she has since paid the taxes owed on the property and has kept receipts for the payments.
“I don't like wasting money. … I pay my bills,” McElroy said. CBS News.
Despite these ongoing payments, in 2019, McElroy began receiving notices that her property taxes were in arrears and that her property was in danger of being sold.
Mr. McElroy asked for clarification. In April 2019, she received a letter from the Cook County Treasurer's Office confirming that the county assessor's office had mistakenly mixed up McElroy's property identification number, a unique 14-digit number used for tax-related purposes. received. Yahoo News — with that of her neighbor.
She was then told that there was “no basis to proceed with the sale” of her home and that the assessor's office would make “internal corrections” that would resolve the issue. “Don't worry,” she recalled being told.
“I want what is rightfully owed to me.”
As it turned out, McElroy still had much to worry about, as the “internal fixes” promised in the letter apparently never happened. Earlier this year, she received a letter from Cook County Circuit Court informing her that her home was “sold for delinquent taxes.”
In fact, the letter added that McElroy actually owed the new homeowner three years' worth of rent. McElroy meant no harm, but expressed genuine concern for all the hardships other homeowners have had to endure as well.
“This woman should not be put in this position to go through this kind of headache and heartache,” she told CBS News. “This is stressful.”
McElroy has since hired a lawyer (at his own expense) to resolve the issue.
CBS News has also been in contact with the assessor's office. A spokesperson for the agency declined to be interviewed on camera, but confirmed that the property identification number has been corrected, that McElroy is now filing taxes, and that the agency is currently working with its legal team to resolve the issue. He admitted that he was.
McElroy remains skeptical.
“You guys can point fingers all day long. I don't care,” she told CBS News. “I want what I am legally obligated to have.”
McElroy had a deadline to file a response with the court earlier this month, the newspaper added. It remains unclear whether she filed that response or whether the court rendered any other ruling.
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