Current Events > Rich SF residents get a shock: Someone bought their street

(+) Yeah! (+)

http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/Rich-SF-residents-get-a-shock-Someone-bought-11738236.php

Thanks to a little-noticed auction sale, a South Bay couple are the proud owners of one of the most exclusive streets in San Francisco — and they’re looking for ways to make their purchase pay.

Tina Lam and Michael Cheng snatched up Presidio Terrace — the block-long, private oval street lined by 35 megamillion-dollar mansions — for $90,000 and change in a city-run auction stemming from an unpaid tax bill. They outlasted several other bidders.

Now they’re looking to cash in — maybe by charging the residents of those mansions to park on their own private street.

[...]

The couple’s purchase appears to be the culmination of a comedy of errors involving a $14-a-year property tax bill that the homeowners association failed to pay for three decades. It’s something that the owners of all 181 private streets in San Francisco are obliged to do.

In a letter to the city last month, Scott Emblidge, the attorney for the Presidio Homeowners Association, said the group had failed to pay up because its tax bill was being mailed to the Kearny Street address used by an accountant who hadn’t worked for the homeowners since the 1980s.

Two years ago, the city’s tax office put the property up for sale in an online auction, seeking to recover $994 in unpaid back taxes, penalties and interest. Cheng and Lam, trawling for real estate opportunities in the city, pounced on the offer — snatching up the parcel with a $90,100 bid, sight unseen.

[...]

There’s a bit of irony in the couple’s purchase. Until a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning the enforcement of racial covenants, homes in Presidio Terrace could be purchased only by whites.

Fair, next, or complete bullshit?

Seems like bullshit to me. How is it possible for a bill to go unpaid for 30 years and the city never makes any attempt to get in direct contact with the owners?
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sfchronicle

In a letter to the city last month, Scott Emblidge, the attorney for the Presidio Homeowners Association, said the group had failed to pay up because its tax bill was being mailed to the Kearny Street address used by an accountant who hadn’t worked for the homeowners since the 1980s.

Is there a particular reason for this? Like they forgot to change the mailing address?

No doubt the residents will bitch but fair is fair.
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those rich people can just sue and take this couple to the cleaners unless they are also super rich methinks
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darkphoenix181 posted...

those rich people can just sue and take this couple to the cleaners unless they are also super rich methinks

I imagine you have to be fairly rich to spend 90k on a street.

eston posted...

Seems like bullshit to me. How is it possible for a bill to go unpaid for 30 years and the city never makes any attempt to get in direct contact with the owners?

Easily. At lot of these places are extremely disorganized, and may not realize there's an issue for years. They'll even come for you for bills you have paid, and try to call you on them, with late fees, when they're the ones who lost the paperwork. It's why we're always being advised to save so many months of back statements, so you can prove you're solvent.
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luigi13579 posted...

Fair, next, or complete bullshit?

Clear case of fair, next.

The people who live there don't really understand what it means to pay taxes.
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This story is wild
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Chinese are buying all real estate in California

take that liberals
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The Rich residents will get together and write them a check to buy it. That's literally what these two are going for.
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--kresnik-- posted...

The Rich residents will get together and write them a check to buy it. That's literally what these two are going for.

This.

It's a flipper, nothing more. The "covenants" bit at the end is a distraction.