The U.S. Supreme Court on June 23 ruled unanimously that a Michigan county does not have to compensate a homeowner whose home was sold for unpaid taxes based on the property’s hypothetical fair market value.
The case came three years after the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Tyler v. Hennepin County, Minnesota, that a county wronged a grandmother when it forced the sale of her condominium over an unpaid tax debt and kept sale proceeds that far exceeded the tax she owed. Critics call this practice “home equity theft.”
