The Firm is pursuing cases for owners and heirs to recover the value of properties taken in town tax lien foreclosures.

Cities and Towns in Massachusetts have historically, and purportedly pursuant to state law, retained the full value of property taken in tax foreclosures even where that value significantly exceeded the amount of the underlying tax bill. This has led to numerous absurd results. For example, where a town had a tax lien of just a few hundred dollars, it could take the property, foreclose, and sell for its full value or auction the property to a private company to sell for the full value, often for hundreds of thousands of dollars, returning none of that excess value to the property owner.

Properties go into tax foreclosure for various reasons – from the inability of the owner to pay the tax bill, to family disputes or misunderstandings of which family members own or are responsible for upkeep of a property. But many families have had this substantial property value “taken” without being compensated.

Then the Supreme Court stepped in. On May 25, 2023, the United States Supreme Court decided the case of Tyler v. Hennepin County, Minnesota. The Supreme Court ruled that, although a town has the right to sell property to recover unpaid property taxes, the town does not have the right to keep more from the sale than the taxes owed. This means that the Massachusetts laws that authorized cities and towns to take property without paying owners the difference between the value of the property and the amount of the tax lien, may be unconstitutional.

We are actively pursuing these claims to recover the value taken in these tax lien foreclosures. Please feel free to contact us for more information or complete a short form to request a contact.