It was a dream come true—or rather about to come true—when the Halls bought their forever home. It had everything they needed and more: five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a family room, a dining room, a roomy garage, good schools, and a good neighborhood. Sure, a fixer-upper, but they felt up to it. Prentiss Hall, a home improvement contractor, made it his life project, and everybody lent a hand—his wife, Tawanda, and six children, cousins, and friends.
“We were really excited,” Tawanda told The Epoch Times.
They negotiated the price down to $67,000—a bargain, perhaps, but the home demanded a daunting amount of “tender love and care.”
“The house had been sitting there for a while. I guess it had mold in it, and it needed new windows and doors and electric,” Tawanda said.
“The city made us get all kinds of permits to get the house up to code. So we went in there and just started working.”
It took about a year before they were able to move into the home in the quiet Detroit suburb of Southfield, Michigan. And it was several years before they felt “comfortable” with it, she said.
The result was worth it.
“It was a dream home. It was big enough … for our family to be there, we had plenty of rooms, big enough to have our holiday dinners, and everyone can come and be comfortable,” she said.
For a Detroit girl, it was nice to have a peaceful place to live, away from all the noise and hustle.
“We just hoped and planned to stay and grow and raise grandchildren and, you know,” she paused.
“But—,” her voice trailed into a sigh.
Shattered Dreams
Several years in, the Halls got into financial trouble. Tawanda’s handicapped brother and her sick mother moved in with them even as all their money still went into improving the house.
“We just had a lot of things happening at once,” she said. “Before I knew it, I was behind on all my taxes.”
Property tax on the 3,700-square-foot home ran over $5,000. In a few years, the debt ballooned to over $22,000, including interest and fees.
In February 2018, Oakland County foreclosed on the home.
The next month, the county put the Halls on a payment plan of $650 a month intended to allow them to get the house back. They prepaid a few months in advance and were told that they don’t need to worry about timely payments as long as they caught up on the payments by February 2019, according to court documents reviewed by The Epoch Times (pdf, pdf).
In June 2018, however, the county suddenly transferred the property to the city of Southfield, which had a preferential right to buy foreclosed properties for the price of the debt.
The Halls were informed they had to move out.
Four months later, the city gave the property to a private company, Southfield Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, for $1.
In early 2020, the house was put on the market and then sold for more than $300,000.
To the Halls’ shock, they learned they were not entitled to a single penny of that payout.
“I feel like someone stole from me and my family,” Tawanda said.
By Petr Svab
