Couple Buy Purportedly Tax-Foreclosed Home From Upstate NY County, Spend Cash On Improvements, Then Find Out They Don't Have Good Title To Residence

In Livingston County, New York, WHEC-TV Channel 10 reports:

• Imagine buying a home, putting money into it, then months later finding out you don't really own it. Seems crazy, but it happened to a Mount Morris couple. Apparently, Livingston County sold them a home claiming it was foreclosed on, but in reality the bank had the rights to it. Anne Sapienza, the town of Leicester's sole assessor says it all happened.



• Sapienza said, "It was a mistake, and it was missed but I don't know why it was missed." The home was classified as a single family dwelling, but you can see it is actually a mobile home. Sapienza says it was classified that way so they could value it properly, but to be clear it was described as a mobile home on the town's website. Something, she says, was missed when the county looked into foreclosing the home. Sapienza said, "If someone went out and took a picture you can see it was a manufactured home."



• All the problems started after the county sold it for $53,000 at a tax foreclosure auction in July. News10NBC spoke to Kevin Van Allen, the lawyer representing the family who bought the home.



• Van Allen said, "Fast forward a few months later, they received an eviction notice saying that the bank from a prior owner that lent the money to the prior owner, was trying to collect. Basically recover the mobile home." The bank had a lien against the mobile home and is who it really belongs too.



• Sapienza said, "The lien was sitting there, why in the title search it wasn't found, I don't know." News10NBC was told that New York State mobile homes are personal property, so they can't be foreclosed on.



• Sapienza said, "The fact is there was a bank, just like if you bought a car, and took a loan out for the car. There was someone who had a lien out against that property. And because it was personal property under banking and titling laws, they literally could go in and pull the home off." Basically, the family spend thousands of dollars to own just the land here.



• Van Allen said, "They had actually invested some of their own money, which is obviously a big concern for them, if the bank is trying to reclaim that. They just want this behind them as quickly as possible."



• News10NBC contacted the Livingston County attorney David Morris, but he said he didn't have time to talk to us about this. The lawyer representing the family who bought the home says they are doing everything possible to resolve this quickly. He adds the county and bank are working them.

Source: Home wrongfully sold in Livingston County.