COLUMBUS, Ohio — After Angelo Craig failed to pay his $620 property tax bill, Cuyahoga County officials began the legal process of seizing his house.
The same was true when Angela Taylor owed $4,655 against her house in Shaker Heights, and Abraham David’s $3,384 debt in Cleveland, court records show.
The county eventually won title to all three homes via legal actions in county court. The three homeowners are now leading a class action lawsuit against the county treasurer’s office, claiming the county unconstitutionally took their money.
They aren’t challenging the foreclosures themselves. Rather, they say the county won title to houses that are worth more than the tax debts, yet the ex-homeowners aren’t being compensated.
The Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to take up their challenge — meaning arguments about a hot-button political issue of property taxes could come before the court in an election year.
“This practice of taking ‘surplus equity’ violates both the Takings Clause and the Excessive Fines Clause of the Ohio Constitution,” wrote Ben Flowers, an attorney for the plaintiffs and a former solicitor general for the Ohio attorney general.
“Yet this unconstitutional (and unconscionable) practice is widespread in Ohio. And courts, including the Eighth District below, allow it to persist.”
State law allows counties to foreclose on homeowners who fail to pay their property taxes. From there, they can auction the houses, take the money they’re owed, and pass on any surplus.
But in all three plaintiffs’ cases, the houses didn’t sell. The auctions – cash-only affairs – failed to clear the modest legal minimum sale amounts of between $12,000 and $27,000.
Jennifer Ciaccia, a county spokesperson, declined to comment on pending litigation or provide data on the county’s home forfeiture practices. The plaintiffs say the county has seized “thousands” of homes in similar fashion.
Property records show Craig, of Cleveland, bought the house for $5,500 in August 2021 (the median sale price that year was $155,000 ). County officials by that point had already filed a case in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas to foreclose on the property.
According to figures provided in his lawsuit, he fell behind on paying the property taxes, to the point where Mr. Craig owed $12,400 on the property. The fair market value of the property, however, was approximately $45,000 in 2022-23.
For Taylor, who lost her house in 2011, she said she fell behind on paying the property taxes and owed about $14,000. The fair market value of the property, however, was about $90,000, and she didn’t receive any proceeds from the surplus.
Flowers, an attorney for Craig and the other plaintiffs, didn’t respond to inquiries.
The plaintiffs filed their lawsuit in June 2024. They lost in trial court and again at the Eighth District Court of Appeals. From here, justices will determine the timing of written and oral arguments before making a ruling.
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This story was originally published by Signal Ohio and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
