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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Only in Philly: Why they can steal homes

District attorney Lynne Abraham last week busted 15 alleged house thieves accused of stealing and selling 82 rowhomes they didn't own, and suggested there may be many more.

Since then, more than 100 callers have asked her deputy, Lisa Caulfield, chief of the Economic Crimes Unit, how to get their houses back. "Some are homeowners. Some are innocent purchasers. We will request restitution," Caulfield says. But, Pennsylvania appeals courts have ruled, "criminal courts can't fix your title. We tell them they have to start working on the civil court side."

And that's a problem for the typical person trying to get back a property that might not be worth more than the few thousand you'd need to spend on a lawyer, says city consumer advocate Lance Haver. He wants Abraham's office to use its "seizure power" to take posession of stolen homes, and pay for lawyers to represent stolen-home victims.
 
Julie O'Connell, an aide to Councilman  Greenlee, has been working with stolen-home victims. She explains how it's  possible to steal a fixed asset:  "Many times the genuine owners have abandoned these houses. Or the owner is dead. The heirs can't agree what to do. Finally a responsible family member comes forward. By then the house is stolen."
 
And not just dead people or dysfunctional families: "We had it happen to an Afghanistan veteran while he was on his third deployment over there. We had it happen to a man, he was fixing this old house, and they stole it and sold it while he was working on it. He didn't deserve that."
 
It's not just the thieves at fault -- or the victims. "It really is the city's issue. If we made people deal with their back taxes in a more timely manner, the family would have been forced to make a decision already. By the time their tax bills are in the tens of thousands, they can't even get a loan to fix the property.

"Now the city is aggressively going after people who are back in their taxes. That's a good thing. I ask the people who come in, the house is falling down, it's ready for sherriff's sale -- What's your plan? Can you fix it? Is it better to let it get sold? It's a hard one.

"But the rigamorole people have to go through to get a police report! Then they have to make sure it goes to the detectives so it can go to the DA. Then they have to have an attorney.

"This happens mostly in areas that gained real estate value over the last five years. Feltonville. Olney. Port Richmond. Parts of Germantown. Places that are coming back." 
 
She credited her boss with pushing legislation to force the city Recorder of Deeds office and others who process sales to demand proper documents, and State Rep. John Taylor for taking the fight to Harrisburg. "We were losing sales taxes because, since 'family sales' are exempt, people were claiming the sales that way, and people weren't checking.  Now we're a lot better on checking sales. But the more sophisticated the thief, the more the law won't stop them."
Posted by Joseph N. DiStefano @ 4:09 PM  Permalink | 5 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:10 PM, 02/26/2009
    The DA put Clifton Horsey in jail for stealing houses, but the Horsey family still controls those properties, selling them or renting them free and clear. Clifton Horsey was declared mentally incompetent, so who in the Horsey family was behind the thefts? The criminal side didn't take care of that question, and the rightful owners are too poor now to fight in civil court for their homes. Who's going to investigate this? Only what Lancer Haver is proposing can help these people, unless an ADA is put in charge of complaints like this one.
    — CleanupPhilly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:16 PM, 02/26/2009
    Clifton Horsey is serving a sentence for deed fraud, stealing houses. But who owns those houses still? Clifton Horsey. The criminal proceedings still leave him on the deeds. Who benefits? The person who has power of attorney over Horsey's affairs, his family. Since Horsey was declared mentally incompetent, civil proceedings should have automatically been instituted to dispose of these properties so that the state can hold the money until the rightful owners can be found. It shouldn't be that you can use your mentally ill relative to steal houses and get him free prison mental care for life while you collect rents.
    — CleanupPhilly
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:28 PM, 02/26/2009
    Rather than celebrate that the city is allegedly being more aggressive in pursuing its back taxes, the city should make sure that the punishment for the 15 house thieves is as severe as possible and therefore make an example of them--these people are despicable and have made a mess that's just as expensive to fix as it was for individuals to get sucked into. At the same time, Philly should make an example of folks who are good and alive but never pay their real estate taxes, especially any absentee landlords who choose to let their buildings fall down. We can't focus only on those homes that are habitable when so much of Philly is the exact opposite. It's sad when a house goes into limbo because of a death in the family, but that doesn't absolve a decedent's heirs from resolving the situation in a timely fashion. As I've learned myself, bills don't go away after a person dies; in fact, we still receive medical bills for the woman who lived in our house up until 2006, when she died and her family sold the property. Also, the city should consider using eminent domain to condemn and then demolish properties that present health hazards; if an owner comes forward to complain, they should have to pay up on their back taxes before they can file a complaint. I feel sympathy for the victims in this article, but on the flip side if you don't take care of your property for no good reason other than laziness or just plain being oblivious (most of you know who you are), you deserve NO sympathy. Finally, on an editorial note, the correct spelling is "sheriff" and not "sherriff" (see "sherriff's sale," above). Blogging tools have spell check, too...
    — knxvil
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 5:55 PM, 02/26/2009
    These folks should sue the city for damages. If the city required proper authentication of the owner before transferring the title, this type of crime would not be possible. If "...pushing legislation to force the city Recorder of Deeds office and others who process sales to demand proper documents..." isn't an admission or negligence, I don't know what is.
    — NickEeee
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:08 PM, 02/26/2009
    Talk about lax enforcement! The city just seized a house down my block for non-payment of taxes. Supposedly, the owner moved out 17 years ago and never paid a penny of property tax after that. I wonder why it took that long for someone to take action. Someone busted in years ago and ripped off the radiators, water heater, boiler, plumbing and electrical wiring. We thought the house was being prepped for demolition, but it turned out to be a thief. What's left is a real eyesore. No self-respecting thief would steal that one.
    — DonQ


5 comments
About Joseph N. DiStefano
Joseph N. DiStefano writes this blog to feed his PhillyDeals column in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Joe has been a member of Bloomberg LP’s New York Finance Team, wrote the book “Comcasted,” taught writing at St. Joseph’s University, and studied economics and history at Penn. Reach Joe at 215-854-5194 and JoeD@phillynews.com
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