To Eric Sabree, the newly-appointed Wayne County Treasurer, the big issue is education – as in educating financially stressed Wayne County homeowners how to keep from losing their homes to tax foreclosure. There are programs available, very affordable programs, but time is running out and Sabree’s primary focus ever since he ascended to the driver’s chair has been to get the word out that just because you owe delinquent taxes on your home doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. Chances are, you aren’t in as much trouble as you might think.
So the message is simple: either work with the Treasurer’s office and save your home, or remain in denial and wind up on somebody’s couch.
“Basically the main thing we’re doing is education and information, letting people know to get in those payment plans,” said Sabree.
“There’s about 10,000 people that owe less than 3,000 dollars. That’s a good thing, because that means that for less than $3,000 they can get into a plan. That means that for 60 percent of that, you can save your property for $1,800. We have about 360 people owe less than $1,000.”
People have until June 30 to get into a program. Sabree, who joined the WCT staff in 2011, then was first appointed as Chief Deputy Treasurer in November, 2015, before stepping up to the top level position last month, is currently working closely with a number of non-profit organizations, as well as appearing on various radio and TV shows to spread the word as effectively and as quickly as he can. Last year there were 28,000 Wayne County properties that went to the tax foreclosure auction. Sabree believes that with the help of the programs he is promoting that number will be cut by nearly two-thirds down to 10,000 this fall when the auction is held in September and October.
Thanks to legislation passed last year in Lansing, Sabree said that property owners who owe delinquent taxes can become eligible for a program where they only have to pay 6% interest on their delinquent tax bill as opposed to 18%, which is what it used to be. The new program allows homeowners to add up all the back taxes owed, then pay 10 percent of that as a down payment on the balance owed. For example, if you owe a total of $10,000 total in delinquent taxes, then you would pay $1,000 down, which is 10 percent. Then, from that point forward, you would pay 3 percent of the total balance each month, which equals $300. However, to stay on the program you must also pay your current taxes (winter and summer taxes) before March 1 of 2017.
Right now 70 percent of the people since the plan was announced have stayed current. But 30 percent have defaulted. So an even newer plan is being offered that will give defaulters a second chance by offering an option that won’t add much more than $20 monthly to what they would have been paying had they stayed current and not defaulted on the older plan. But this plan is only good for the remainder of 2016. Once 2017 rolls around, it will be too late. Anyone attempting to avail themselves of an interest reduction program next year will only find that they have expired.
Then there’s the SEV (State Equalized Value) stipulated payment agreement which says that if you owe more in taxes than half of the SEV on your home, then you only pay half of your SEV. For example, if you owe $17,000 in back taxes, but the SEV on your house is $5,500, then all it takes is a one-time payment of $2,750 (half of your SEV) to wipe your slate clean. Everything else goes away.
In order to further assist customers with paying their bills, Sabree said the Treasurer’s Office will be offering a wide variety of payment options in the near future. For example they will be joining with DTE to enable their customers to start using the DTE payment kiosks – already in place – to also pay their delinquent taxes with cash, credit card or check, without having to come into the office. This option should become available in about three months.
Efforts are also underway to make online payments available. Payment by phone is already available and appears to be a popular option, said Sabree.
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