By Bob Katzen

Last year, the House and Senate approved and the governor signed a law, as part of the state budget, that prohibits cities and towns that foreclose on properties on which the owner owes back property taxes, from keeping all of the profits when the city or town sells the property at auction. Prior to passage of this law Massachusetts law allowed this practice. The new law allows the city or town to keep only the amount owed in back taxes and send the remainder to the owner.

Last year, the United States Supreme Court ruled that cities and towns that foreclose on properties on which the owner owes back property taxes, cannot keep all of the profits when the city or town sells the property at auction. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, writing a unanimous decision about a similar Minnesota law, said that “a taxpayer who loses her $40,000 house to the state to fulfill a $15,000 tax debt has made a far greater contribution to the public fisc than she owed.”

The law’s sponsor, Sen. Mark Montigny (D-New Bedford) says the law is facing a new challenge, proposed as part of a fiscal 2025 supplemental budget filed by Gov. Maura Healey last week, that would make it harder for homeowners to recoup their rightful equity.

“The same municipal officials who partnered with private firms to prey upon vulnerable homeowners suffering from immense challenges in their lives are the same special interests who have heavily lobbied the administration to give them another bite at the apple while everyday people continue to lose their life savings,” said Montigny. “There are hundreds of pending cases within the trial court that deserve immediate relief in accordance with the protections provided under the new law, including the reduced interest rate that was previously set at a predatory level.”

Montigny continued, “Efforts to weaken these long overdue legal protections will not be tolerated and these elected and appointed municipal officials should be more concerned with helping their residents, not concocting new ways to continue to rob them. It is unacceptable that consumer advocates and the lead legislative sponsor of this measure have been left in the dark while financially driven special interests have been allowed to once again pervade the legislative process. The Healey Administration should immediately rescind its support for these harmful measures that were concocted without consulting the consumer advocates who deal with these difficult cases on behalf of homeowners every day.”