Homeowners find themselves stuck in the middle

Crain's Chicago Business reports:

When Angela and Marshall Steele tried to refinance the mortgage on their $77,500 South Side house last summer, they confronted a deal-breaker: The mortgage holder hadn't paid their escrowed property taxes for two years. A tax-sale notice followed in November.

"It was just horrible," says Ms. Steele, 58, recounting a series of fruitless calls to the lender before a letter to U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., and intervention by the Cook County treasurer's office got results.

Tax payments, it turns out, were being applied to another home the Steeles own in Park Forest — a symptom of a chronic problem costing the treasurer's office up to $1.5 million annually in staff time, or more than 10% of its $11.5-million budget, according to Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas.


Angela Steele got a nasty surprise when she tried to refinance her mortgage: The mortgage holder hadn't been paying her property taxes. Photo: Erik Unger
In an effort to bring lenders and mortgage service companies to the table, she has refused since October to make 1,850 refunds for "mispostings" to the wrong property identification number (PIN). Mispostings have totaled more than 23,000 since 1998.

Isn't it amazing how things get messed up?