Daniel J. Merckx failed to pay $37,707 in property tax owed on the East Greenbush home he inherited when his father died.

After Rensselaer County officials foreclosed and sold the house for $80,000 in August 2018, they got the taxes owed, and a windfall of $42,293, but Merckx got nothing.

Timothy S. Laraway Jr., another Rensselaer County resident, owed $8,810 in property taxes and fees. The county foreclosed, sold the property for $29,000 and kept the $20,190 in surplus proceeds.

And in 2021, Cattaraugus County officials sold property owned by Barbara Snashell for $60,500. The county got $11,846 in unpaid taxes, along with another $48,554 in windfall profit, while Snashell got nothing.

The process has been repeated thousands of times over many years in counties and municipalities across New York state and elsewhere across the country.

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Federal lawsuit in NY seeks to recover tax foreclosure windfall