County Owes Him a Home

Here’s the thank you Los Angeles County gave to an 85-year-old World War II veteran who saved most of his life to buy his home: The county sold Terrell Dotson’s Inglewood condominium out from under him because the elderly man unknowingly missed a single tax bill amounting to $546.81.

As reported in The Times on Monday, Dotson owned the one-bedroom, one-bathroom condo outright, paying $92,500 in cash for it in December 1995. When the second installment of the annual tax bill came due a few months later, Dotson, perhaps confused because the original bill was sent in the previous owner’s name, didn’t pay it. He paid subsequent tax bills, usually in person. But the county clock, which gives property owners five years to pay a delinquent bill before the county offers the property for sale, had started ticking. After the first notice, county tax collectors use only a small box on the back of the regular tax bill to warn that back taxes are owed, without listing the amount.

Clerks somehow never connected this elderly man who paid his taxes in person with the delinquent tax bill shadowing his record -- or if they did, they didn’t tell him. And when he responded to a notice that his property was about to be sold with a scrawled, “This is a false statement,” no one at the treasurer and tax collector’s office bothered to investigate. The last time Dotson paid taxes, no one told him his condo had been sold. All of this shows the worst of government: a commitment to the rules no matter how illogical, an “it’s-not-my-job” attitude.

But fortunately for Dotson, an Inglewood police officer named Rod Ramos showed the good side of government. Dotson spoke with Ramos, who listened sympathetically and logged the complaint. It came to the attention of Ramos’ boss, Police Chief Ron Banks, who contacted Reuben Taylor in the department’s community affairs office. With help from them and Vacie Thomas of the Los Angeles NAACP, Dotson is trying to unravel this mess while he lives in an apartment.

This should boil the blood of all those who ever cared for anyone old. You shouldn’t be able to lose your home because of a single misplaced or misunderstood tax bill. And the county surely shouldn’t accept your tax money with one hand while it auctions off your house with the other. Because the county sold his condo, it now, ironically, owes Dotson at least $55,000 -- the difference between the delinquent bill and penalties and the auction sale price. Note to Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke and supervisor colleagues: The county owes him more than that; it should help him get his home back, or something comparable. That’s the least it can do, along with changing the nonsensical rules that led to Dotson’s unfair loss.

Law-abiding citizens should not lose their homes because a bureaucrat was “just following the rules.” The rules are wrong.