By: Diane Benjamin
See the previous story: https://blnnews.com/2020/01/16/what-stan-warned-about-happened/
Stan Nord warned about local property rights because he got a bill that should have been paid by owners of his property years before. The Town of Normal didn’t care that failure to collect was THEIR fault. He paid the bill in protest.
In the previous story a guy who owned his home for 9 years got a bill from the Bloomington Normal Water Reclamation District (BNWRD) for annexation to the district. Obviously somebody dropped the ball years ago. By FOIA I was told the district settled with him for $150 instead of the usual $600. I see nothing in the BNWRD minutes where the Trustees want to recover property tax revenue they lost because of the failure to annex years ago,
That guy isn’t the only one to get billed. This property owner got a bill on a house they have owned for 20 years:
The above is from the August 12, 2019 Noncompliance Hearing for Annexation Violation.
This property and three others were annexed at the September meeting, the fee was reduced to $150 each too:
The Morris Ave property was purchased 21 years ago. The two on Mercer are listed as commercial property.
BNWRD is not done annexing properties. Their investigation found around 30 in violation. I wonder if they will be investigating Normal properties next? It appears they should. Both investigations should include why this happened. Did the builder/developer collect the fees and just not pay them to BNWRD? Did Bloomington allow people to connect to the sewer system without paying the fee?
FYI, this problem has nothing to do with your water bill other than you should be getting charged the BNWRD monthly fee along with your water bill. BNWRD processes what you flush.
State law does not contain a Statute of Limitations for Water Reclamation Districts. It should.
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SURE would be nice IF WE could go back and collect from EITHER town for lost income of OURS on properties they bought in recent years, that they SAID they would make money on/develop!!
There is a MUCH bigger problem I can’t write about until I receive a FOIA. Stay tuned.
This whole thing stinks. But, assuming that they can and must legally require payment now, do they have the legal authority to change the amount “to accomodate residents”?
I don’t think the rates are set by anyone but them, so yes. They could have gone for the full amount, Maybe they realized that wouldn’t have been fair.
This is the kind of thing the ACLU should be fighting. It is the ripping off of people by government, instead that fight so guys can pee in the same room as girls or for people so confused they don’t know what they are.
Most people have their home purchased insured by a land title company which issues a policy saying there are no liens and encumbrances on the property for taxes, contractor liens, etc., the exception the mortgage which will be paid off at closing from the sale.
Wondering if the owners have such a policy, and if so, do they have recourse against the title insurance company.
No liens etc existed. I doubt they would pay off.
Diane, as I understand it, the insurance is for exactly that. To protect the new owner from “surprise” claims. I would file a claim and expect to prevail. What other point is there to having title insurance?
Bloomington is more than welcome to go after the back taxes owed by the Cra(p)teau and other blatant at-fault lawbreakers, whether business or individual. Some political advice to Marc and other common-sense future candidates… put out some media saying that under your watch if the local government makes a mistake calculating taxes or fees, it will own up to the mistake and not go after the taxpayer. This is an easy statement and good politics while it forces Koos and Renner to defend their actions or throw in the towel.
Why haven’t you been on the board for McLean County? Straighten some of these people out!
I’d rather report and shame them into doing the right thing.
Stan – Title Insurance Policies do not cover claims for things which are not recorded. Since there were no recorded documents or liens showing anything was owed a Title Policy will not help.