Man gets tickets for Detroit properties he doesn't own -- for last 5 years
DETROIT (WJBK) - A Waterford man keeps getting tax bills and tickets for several properties in Detroit.
But the problem is that he doesn't own any of them. Now, he just hopes in the end he doesn't have to pay for Detroit's mistake.
FOX 2 "Do you own any property in the city of Detroit?"
"I do not and I have never owned property in the city of Detroit," Tim Kramer said.
And that's why he is so confused.
The Waterford man claims for the last five years the city of Detroit has been sending him tax bills and blight tickets for three separate properties in Detroit for homes he has never owned.
"It is very frustrating for me because I keep getting tax bills and tickets," he said. "Seven hundred and fifty dollars in tickets two days ago."
Kramer says every time he received one of the bills or tickets, he puts it back in the envelope and sends it back to the city with a note telling them to correct the mistake. And he always follows up with a phone call.
"I get put in this loop - 'You are in the wrong department, you are in the wrong department, call the building department, the register of deeds,'" Kramer said.
Kramer says it is an easy problem to fix. How does he know? Ironically, he's a tax assessor for the city of Waterford.
"The problem is three years of not paying your taxes, you lose your property," Kramer said. "This guy might have lost his property."
FOX 2 discovered layers of mistakes.
Not only is the wrong address listed on the bills and tickets, so is the owner.
The former owner of Investment Property Rehab has a home across the street from Kramer, but he told us by phone - he has never owned any of the Detroit properties either.
Even the current tenants of one the properties listed in the tickets on Woodingham, says they have never received a ticket - and at the well-kept house there is no blight.
Jason Williams, who has rented this home for 15 years from a private owner, says he plans to investigate.
"I feel that it is a problem and we should have known about it a long time ago," Williams said.
Detroit Treasurer Dave Szymanski is working to get to the bottom of it, but he says from his initial check none of the names and addresses match up either.
Who is responsible is unclear, but Kramer hopes in the end he's not the one who will have to pay for the city's mistakes.
"There might be a chance they can put a lein on my property because they got the mailing address incorrect," Kramer said. "I don't want anything to do with this."
Szymanski for the treasurer’s office says it could be a clerical mistake, but it could also be some sort of scam. He plans to look into it when the office opens on Monday.