An 89-year-old woman in the US with Alzheimer’s disease almost lost her home over six cents in unpaid taxes.
Glen Kristi Goldenthal’s home in New Jersey was put up for sale by Ocean Township officials on 9 September after her minuscule debt snowballed to over $300 (£230), thanks to interest and administrative charges.
Glen's home was put on the market over her six cent unpaid tax bill. Credit: NBC New York
Luckily, Glen’s infuriated daughter Lisa Suhay stepped up to protect her, bringing the story to the attention of national media after she slammed officials in a video posted on TikTok and Twitter.
Lisa said: “Today, I spent the entire day saving her home from a tax sale that was happening today that she didn’t want to tell me about because she has Alzheimer’s – so half the time she didn’t even remember it was happening, and the other half of the time she was too terrified to tell me and too ashamed and too afraid and too worried.
“A tax sale – for an 89-year-old woman’s home – in the middle of a pandemic. And do you want to know how much my mother owed? Six cents. Six pennies. And for that, they put her house up for sale today. They also charged her almost 400 dollars in fees.
“They charged her to put the notice in the paper to sell her home – you pieces of human refuse.”
Author Lisa, who lives in Virginia, said her mum was given one warning, though she is likely to have forgotten this because of her disease.
Speaking to NBC New York, she said: “Apparently the tax collector called her because when I talked to him, he said he realised there was something wrong, that she didn’t understand.
“[I said] ‘I’m sorry, you’re selling my mother’s house today because she owes you six cents.’ He said, ‘Yeah, it’s amazing how these things snowball.’
“I was like, ‘It’s six cents!'”
@PhilMurphyNJ Is this how you want seniors treated? Appalling. @CNNnewsroom pic.twitter.com/2nsq8ChX59- Lisa Suhay (@NiceChess757) September 9, 2020
Lisa was able to save her mum’s house by paying off the debt and taking it off the market, with Mayor Christopher Siciliano apologising for the ‘silly’ situation.
He said: “Naturally it’s really embarrassing the town would put someone’s home up for sale over six cents. It’s silly.
“You can keep paying that quarterly payment, but the back payment triggers an amount that eventually can cause a tax sale. This is all computer-generated, not something that a human can correct.”
And while Glen’s home is now safe, Lisa still worries for her and other vulnerable people.
Glen was nearly forced out of her home over the tiny tax bill. Credit: NBC New York
She said: “She’s called me dozens of times in the last 24 hours, [asking] ‘Is my house gonna be OK? Do I have to pack? Where am I gonna go, live?’
“I understand this is state law, but the township really has to bear responsibility for how they handle this.
“Shame on anybody who can’t think far outside the box enough to come up with six cents in an office full of people. You can’t pull a dime out of your pocket?
“How many people during a pandemic, or any other time, are being victimised by this greedy broken system?”
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