Mistakes put homes in peril

In 2004, the retired seamstress didnt pay her $406 tax bill, prompting the city to put a lien on her home in Northeast Washington, in a leafy neighborhood with wide front porches and backyard swing sets. In July 2005, the tax office sold the lien at auction.

In 2004, the retired seamstress didn’t pay her $406 tax bill, prompting the city to put a lien on her home in Northeast Washington, in a leafy neighborhood with wide front porches and backyard swing sets. In July 2005, the tax office sold the lien at auction.

When relatives found out less than two months later, they paid the city on behalf of Dolsey, who was 88 at the time. Her niece, Deborah Miller, an IRS auditor, said she paid exactly what the tax office told her by phone to bring the account current — $639.47.

But the tax office never lifted the lien, allowing the tax lien purchaser who bought it to press for foreclosure in February 2006. The company was owned by Steven Berman, who was later convicted of rigging tax lien auctions in Maryland.

When his company tacked on $5,600 in legal fees and other costs — 14 times Dolsey’s original tax debt — the family couldn’t pay, and the house was taken by Berman’s company. The company’s law firm, which is run by Berman’s wife, said it was willing to reduce the fees to $3,500. Family members said recently that they could not come up with the money.

In response to questions from The Post, the tax office said Dolsey’s lien remained active because she still had $44.79 left on the books after Miller had paid the tax debt. The agency produced an undated bill showing what officials said she owed at the time. No other records reviewed by The Post, including subsequent bills and account statements, reflect a $44 shortfall.

Miller said she received no notification that the family still owed money and had paid exactly what she was told.

“If I had owed them $40 more, then why didn’t someone tell me?” said Miller, 61. “It’s ridiculous — period.”

Cordi said he couldn’t speak to whether the family was given an accurate payoff amount by the tax office.

“They were $40 short,” he said. “It was properly foreclosed on.”

The family was outraged when it learned from The Post that the $44 shortfall had cost Dolsey the family home of five decades.

“I feel terrible,” said Michael Zimmerman, Dolsey’s nephew. “You pay your taxes. You do the right thing. You’re entitled to honest government that puts you first.”

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