In1996, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office mailed a paltry $1.63 property tax bill for the Slidell-area home of Kermit and Dolores Atwood that never reached its destination.
The seemingly innocuous, misaddressed bill was the start of a bizarre legal ordeal that threatens to leave the couple homeless and now stands at the door of the state Supreme Court.
The chain of events that followed the wayward property tax bill, including the eventual sale of the home at a sheriff's tax sale, is described by Dolores Atwood as "seven years of emotional hell." "I don't know how much more I can endure," said Atwood, 69, while sitting in a FEMA trailer in front of her Katrina-ravaged brick home on Dauphine Street, just north of Slidell.
"I wake up in the middle of the night, and it's on my mind," she said. "All this should have never happened."
But it did, all because of the $1.63 tax bill that Atwood and her husband, Kermit, never received. And they still face the threat of losing their property because of the bill, which was mailed to a defunct address and returned undelivered to the Sheriff's Office.
The couple cling to the hope that recent state court decisions, which say their home should never have been put up for a tax sale, withstand further appeals by a land company tenaciously pursuing a lawsuit to obtain the property.
Sold behind their backs: The Atwoods' nightmare began when they learned in 2000 that their four-bedroom, two-bath home had been sold in 1997 through a tax sale for the $1.63 in unpaid taxes, plus 10 cents interest and $125 in costs associated with the sale.
"We found out about it seven days after the three-year redemption period ended," during which delinquent taxpayers can reclaim their property, Atwood said. She then complained to the sheriff's and assessor's offices that she never received the bill and knew nothing about it. MagazineLane.com
The seemingly innocuous, misaddressed bill was the start of a bizarre legal ordeal that threatens to leave the couple homeless and now stands at the door of the state Supreme Court.
The chain of events that followed the wayward property tax bill, including the eventual sale of the home at a sheriff's tax sale, is described by Dolores Atwood as "seven years of emotional hell." "I don't know how much more I can endure," said Atwood, 69, while sitting in a FEMA trailer in front of her Katrina-ravaged brick home on Dauphine Street, just north of Slidell.
"I wake up in the middle of the night, and it's on my mind," she said. "All this should have never happened."
But it did, all because of the $1.63 tax bill that Atwood and her husband, Kermit, never received. And they still face the threat of losing their property because of the bill, which was mailed to a defunct address and returned undelivered to the Sheriff's Office.
The couple cling to the hope that recent state court decisions, which say their home should never have been put up for a tax sale, withstand further appeals by a land company tenaciously pursuing a lawsuit to obtain the property.
Sold behind their backs: The Atwoods' nightmare began when they learned in 2000 that their four-bedroom, two-bath home had been sold in 1997 through a tax sale for the $1.63 in unpaid taxes, plus 10 cents interest and $125 in costs associated with the sale.
"We found out about it seven days after the three-year redemption period ended," during which delinquent taxpayers can reclaim their property, Atwood said. She then complained to the sheriff's and assessor's offices that she never received the bill and knew nothing about it. MagazineLane.com
