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County Pauses Removal Of Residents From Century Home, Giving Them A Chance To Pay Back Taxes
June 15, 2021
Escambia County has paused their move to force the residents out of a home in Century; instead the county is working with family members and giving them a chance to reclaim the property.
The property at 511 Hecker Road escheated to the county in January, becoming county property after taxes were not paid for seven years. In April, the county commission voted to authorize the County Attorney’s Office to take necessary action for the removal of the occupant and any abandoned property or vehicles.
The total amount owed in taxes and fees as of January was $22,516.71, according to Escambia County Tax Collector Scott Lunsford. The taxes were owed by joint property owners Shawanda Newton, Latoya Redmond, Lalita Simpson, Earwin Newton and Amber Redmond, according to the tax deed.
Shawanda Poindexter said in a May email to the county that the home was left to her and her siblings after their mother passed away.
“Give me time to pay this so me and my siblings can redeem the property please,” Poindexter told the county commission.
“There is a clear defined process through statute that they have the ability to square up what was owed,” Barry said at a May BOCC meeting. “I know the board has no intent of evicting people from property if they are willing to catch everything up.
The Tax Collector’s Office calculated the amount owed, if paid by June 30, to be $9,611.01. Florida law allows the process by which the property can be redeemed with previous penalties waived.
Pictured: Shawanda Poindexter appeared by the Escambia County Commission in May. Pictured below: The property at 511 Hecker Road in Century. Images for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
44 Responses to “County Pauses Removal Of Residents From Century Home, Giving Them A Chance To Pay Back Taxes”
We are being taxed out of our homes
Read the email statement. It was was heir property. What are the chances no one knew the taxes were behind? Granted after the property was gifted, someone should’ve known but again who is the resident or has the greatest responsibility?
@Government criminals, and others who have said they paid taxes on their property when they bought it. No You did not! Their is no sales tax on real property, “fixed property, principally land and buildings.”
A seller may have to pay capital gains tax after selling property but there is not a sales tax on Real properties.
If you are interested in knowing why the tax bill is so high you can always reasearch it. Florida is a sunshine law state and all that information is public record. I looked it so I know but I will not share another persons business on this forum but it is available if you so desire to know.
@ WORRIED RESIDENT
……”Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s….
Matthew 22:21 KJV
@Scott Lunsford why do I have to pay taxes on something I already own. Sounds like theft to me, or perhaps extortion is a better word.
1st.. Not EVERYBODY got stimulus check, unemployment, pandemic emergency unemployment . I personally got NOTHING! And believe me, I tried! But my ol Man , Thankfully, pulled us thru. Kids, pets, livestock and paid our taxes..!! Unfortunately, a family member lost a house left by parents. The taxes were not paid the year that the remaining parent passed. And just a few months later, they auctioned the property from the courthouse steps in Brewton. The taxes were less than $600..But this family gets 7 years before a threat is even made? Then an email saying can we have more time, was enough to hault eviction? On a $22,000 tax delinquent property? Something just seems…. well, SKETCHY. And I’m wondering why that property’s taxes are over $22,000 for 7 years, when the property may not even be worth that if it were sold.! We have a brick home with a garage, 4BR, 3 Bath, utility room, sitting on more than 2 acres of land. House was built in the 90s . And the taxes run around $1000 a year. 7 years would be $7000 plus penalties? Please explain to me how the taxes are $22,000 on this little, older , wood frame house on probably a plot of land. Hecker road is pretty tight from house to house . So I do not see it being a big bunch of land.. I am just dazed and confused by the whole mess.!! And lastly, You never actually OWN anything. Even if u pay it off, and paid taxes then. U pay rent to the government for what u think u own, for the rest of your life or they may boot u out and let someone else pay them for the property that u thought u owned! That is wrong.! U paid taxes when u bought it. Why should I still have to pay when it is paid off??
Hi, @Joe hall.
I’m reading these comments and really don’t see any negative personal comments at all. What I do see is a community of hard working, tax-paying people who read this story in disbelief at how things have been allowed to get to this point. We’re having a difficult time understanding how five owners supposedly weren’t able to come up with the funds to keep the house FOR SEVEN YEARS. We also don’t get how the county is now apparently saying “nah, just kidding, you can stay” when we all know our houses would’ve been padlocked and we would’ve been evicted YEARS ago if we just decided to play dumb and ignore what must have been BALES of late notices. C’mon, man, enough with the excuses. Everyone goes through things from time to time but adults handle their problems, plain and simple. This was simply a case of “lets see how long we can squat here for free”.
Nobody better send an email trying to find out who did this!! See other story! One good cover up deserves another! Time to vote them all out!
Ppl…..they are not getting away with not paying taxes…….they still have to pay plus interests and penalties. They’ll probably pay 3x what they owe. If they’re paying why do we need to take away their home.
It’s so sad how people have all these negative comments about the young lady and her siblings you do not know the situation or what they have been through are going through the world needs help all the negative comments you do not know what people are going through so be nice what if it was your family property when you want to keep it to an extra quarts to help you so please if you’re going to leave comments about people do your research before you leave negative comments you do not know what these people situation was and is
I have to admit, “His Dudeness” cracked me up…
@Wondering
Yeah, well, you know, that’s just like your opinion man.
CHAZ won’t stop at the county level. We need to have our message heard. Someone, besides us, has GOT to pay these taxes.
@Lebowski
First of all this has nothing to do with our Governor, this is on the County level. Our Governor wouldn’t go for it! But my taxes help pay for it, and IF you pay any yours do too. This is not about a community coming together to help each other, this has been going on for SEVEN years! This is called taking advantage of a situation! If the people of the community, county and this nation would put their feet down and plant them there and take a hard stand, all this FREE (ha-ha) money would stop and this country would have to get back to WORK!
ESCPA. GIVE ME THE SAME DEAL
This is SO good of the tax office.. now I have a pass.. I’ll just cite this if I fall short on my property taxes.
Taxes on Personal property, that’s criminal.
Using power and authority to force someone to pay you money= Extortion.
Abolish property taxes! Let the people have something of their own.
@ Wondering
I suggest we create an autonomous zone. We’ll name it CHAZ. Century Homestead Autonomous Zone. An immediately recognizable, original, namesake.
As my first motion under my self appointed leadership position, I move that we remove anyone’s felt obligation to be contributing members of society. We’ll send a message to Mr. Desantis, “Someone has to be responsible for all of these people!”
I shall answer to His Dudeness and our moto will be, “Who Ever Wants to Work for a Living?”
No one else would be given this opportunity. What in the world are these people thinking? Oh wait, they’re not. This is wrong on so many levels. Criminals.
I’m a 71 year old widow on a fixed income and would like to know the secret to getting away without paying taxes for 7 years. That’s just ridiculous. And 5 people on the deed? Nobody noticed the delinquent notices? Bull.
Who at the county has to answer for this. I want to know so when I don’t pay mine I know who will ok it and reduce my taxes. Lawsuit based on president set by county I should win.
Time for the county attorney to weigh in. This is not the proper procedure.
So I guess if I keep dodging my taxes and ignoring them not only will I get to keep my property but I’ll get a tax break.
Absolutely ridiculous. Apparently it pays off to be irresponsible now days smh.
Sad but this is a mistake. Do for one, do for all. Not setting a good precident.
@Lebowski
So are you going to storm “ Area Century “ and help everyone that hasn’t received all these extra stimulus checks for the extra children in the houses and help us all pay our taxes. Or have been sitting home drawing unemployment for a year now? I know now where more of my money just went, add my name to that deed!
It breaks my heart to hear the way everyone is overlooking the important lesson from this situation. Its times like these when we should all come together as a community.
If we adopt the Storm Area 51 approach, we can all band together and forego paying our taxes. They can’t evict us all.
According to the Property Appraiser’s website, “Escambia County” has owned the property since January 2. Someone claimed a homestead exemption on the property in 2020. Presumably that is the person who actually lived in the house and should have been paying the property taxes. To add to the mystery, one person a “Latoya L. Redmon” was on March 27, 2020 registered to vote at “511 E Hecker Road” in Century. Is it Redmon or Redmond and is it 511 Hecker Road or 511 E Hecker Road? So now that Escambia County owns the property exactly how would the five prior property owners get it back? What is the property worth if put up for sale? Is anyone still squatting in the home? Should Escambia County have the Sheriff clear them out?
The higher amount would have been required had the property gone in the sale. In this case, the property was struck to the county. The county would not be required to collect the half homestead value as the family would retain the ownership.
F.S. Chapter 197
If the land to be sold is assessed on the latest tax roll as homestead property, the bid of the certificate holder must be increased to include an amount equal to one-half of the assessed value of the homestead property as required by s. 197.502. If there are no higher bids, the property shall be struck off and sold to the certificate holder, who shall pay to the clerk any amounts included in the minimum bid not already paid, including, but not limited to, the documentary stamp tax, the recording fees, and, if the property is homestead property, the moneys to cover the one-half value of the homestead within 30 days after the sale.
Hmmm? can everybody get away with not paying their property tax? at my age if i quit paying now by the time they come to get me they’ll have to dig me up.
I would like to know how they dodged paying taxes for so long without any ramification what so ever. Sort of like income taxes (watch the commercials on TV!). You don’t pay a dime in income tax for years and then the government agrees to settle for a couple of pennies to the dollar. We need to make these tricks available to everybody?
It has been my experience that paying your taxes yearly and on time saves money and eliminates the stress brought on by procrastination. I do not know the situation here, or why the taxes were allowed to get so for behind. They are lucky their property is still theirs, and hasn’t been bought for the taxes owed by a bank or someone who looks for this type of easy acquisition of property.
Ok so let me get this straight,.they had 7 years to pay those taxes … between 5 people ..and if they pay the taxes all they are going to owe is the $9611.00 …what about the interest and penalties…does that just go away? I can guarantee you if that was me I wouldn’t get this chance…and all these people received stimulus checks and I’m sure some of them have children so that was extra and still didn’t pay anything on the taxes but I’m sure someone got their hair and nails done….
Do these rules apply to everyone else? Do I get 7+ years to pay my taxes?
The way I interpreted this article is don’t pay your property taxes for 7 years then get a 60% discount when the county decides it’s time to take action.
So remember folks don’t pay property taxes like a responsible citizen bc that’s for suckers. Just collect interest by putting your tax dollars in dividend yielding stocks, then if/when they threaten you just pay them something to shut up and leave you alone for another 7 years rinse and repeat.
They need to examine how others in the county have been treated historically on taxes before they decide to wipe the books clean so they can virtue signal in 2021. The property has 5 people on the deed. Wonder how many of them are employed. Wonder how many already get some form of public assistance.
7 years and no taxes paid? Everyone wants a piece until taxes are due.
I’m curious why in this particular instance the process is different from any other county tax seizure. After seven years of non-payment, and six months’ after the county took possession of the property, an email requesting more time was sufficient to reverse the process?
5 people own the property. And none of them bothered to pay a dime until the county said we are taking it ? No, if you don’t pay your taxes like the rest of us do you lose the property. Now if they approach and say here is the money then Sure. Otherwise these taxes will never be paid. And these 5 siblings will live in the house and not pay a dime. I know how this works. All you broken hearted sympathetic folks out there, if you are so concerned then write a check today and pay the taxes for them. While your at it come November 2021 pay mine for me too. We are seniors on a fixed income yet we pay our taxes. If I remember right pretty much everyone received stimulus money. Where did all that go. Open your eyes folks these people just did not bother to pay because they figured they could get away with it. So no bleeding hearts. Someone needs to look at all 5 siblings finances and help them figure out where the money can come from. I guarantee they can cut back here and there or get another job (plenty of them out there) and pay the taxes that are due. Ridiculous.
WHY HAVEN’T THEY BEEN PAYING THE TAXES ALL ALONG????????
THEY THOUGHT THEY WOULD BE FORGOTTEN OR MAYBE THAT IS IN THE CHARTER ” WHEN PROPERTY IS LEFT TO YOU NO MORE TAXES”
Property taxes shouldn’t exists, at least for primary homes. If you own it, the government shouldn’t be able to take it away.
7 years is not enough time to make an attempt to pay anything regarding the property tax? Also, the math has me confused on the amount to be paid. Another Century example.
God is good, and answers prayers!!!
I’m not so sure “giving them a chance” is the right call to make. Seven years seems like plenty of a chance to do that right thing… “but we’ll pay it soon” just a ploy to buy more time while taking advantage of the government, and being a drain on society.
I pay my taxes every year just as everyone else does I don’t agree with this it’s been 7 years and no body paid anything on the taxes over 20,000 and it’s supposed to just be okay hold on wait let us make payments this is a joke
I’m glad that they are giving them a chance to rectify the situation. Prayers for my classmate and the family.
So if the $22,516 tax bill gets paid by June 30 the bill is reduced to $9,611?