A MOTHER has revealed she was blindsided about her home being auctioned off behind her back.
In 2023, Ancilla Crawford, a Baltimore resident, found out that her home had been pawned off after finding a note on her door.
“My hands were shaking,” Crawford told local ABC affiliate WBFF.
“I’m thinking, ‘I can’t just lose this home, how can they do this?’”
An out-of-town LLC was able to obtain her home for $12,000.
At first, she was stunned as she had always been up to date with her bills.
However, under further investigation, the city’s municipal building revealed that a lien was placed on her home due to an overdue lawn mowing bill.
Crawford immediately knew something was wrong, as her home didn’t have a lawn.
“I told them, you know, this wasn’t my property. This was an error,” she said.
The city told the homeowner that the best way to solve her issue was to pay the lawn mowing fee and reimburse the LLC that bought her home, costing her almost $3,000.
Former federal and state prosecutor, Thiru Vignarajah, revealed he had seen a similar issue happen in 2021, with 68-year-old Vanessa Wagner.
He questioned why this seemed to be a problem in certain neighborhoods and not all around Baltimore.
“Do we have different rules for how we dispense with residential properties in Guilford versus Northeast Baltimore?” asked Vignarajah.
“Because I don’t get these calls from property owners in Guildford or Roland Park or Locus Point.”
‘I DONT UNDERSTAND’
Other people around Baltimore have reported losing their homes similarly.
In August 2023, Deanna Woodward was shocked when she found out that she was about to lose her 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥hood home due to an unpaid water bill.
“[I’m] just a little scared,” Liam, her ten-year-old son, told local NBC News affiliate WBAL-TV while describing the moment the family almost got evicted.
“I seen all these people getting out of the car, the dog pound here, the sheriff, they were getting ready to start putting my stuff out.”
Woodward had lived in her house since she was three years old.
On August 3, she was told that her and her family had until the end of that weekend to leave forever.
Her problems started in 2018, after her quarterly water bill rose significantly, according to The Washington Post.
In May of that same year, New York-based Stonefield Investment Fund IV bought her home in a tax sale $10,000, according to the filing.
At the time there was a $3,800 lien on the house when it was sold.
“I don’t understand any of this stuff. I don’t understand none of this,” Woodward said.
She claimed that she didn’t realize until a week before the sheriffs arrived at her home that the unpaid water bill had caused the situation, the filing stated.
City officials slammed how Woodward’s case was handled.
“Families should not lose their homes this way. It’s horrific,” City Councilwoman Odette Ramos told the network.
