This story was first published by Kobin Levin of Outlier Media. WXYZ is a proud media partner of Outlier.
The Wayne County Treasurer’s Office owes thousands of Detroiters money — in some cases more than $10,000 — after profiting from tax foreclosures in violation of the state Constitution.
Many of these former homeowners have no idea that recent court rulings entitle them to this money, and the deadline to claim it is just a few months away.
Outlier Media and other nonprofits in Detroit are working to help residents recover what they’re owed.
Here’s what you need to know — and how you can help.
Find out if you could be owed money or get help with a claim
If you or someone you know lost a home to tax foreclosure in Detroit between 2015 and 2020, look up the address online or text it to 67485, our TXT OUTLIER service.*
If the data show that Wayne County could owe you money, you’ll need to fill out a claim form before the March 31 deadline. Outlier is working with other Detroit nonprofits to help people navigate the process at no cost. Just text REPORTER to 67485 and tell us you need assistance or ask a question.
If you’re not on the list but you experienced a tax foreclosure during that period, reach out to us anyway by texting REPORTER to 67485 — the data may be incorrect. Appearing on the list also doesn’t guarantee a payout. The only way to find out for sure is to submit a claim before the deadline. Note: Submitting the form is just the first step in a longer process.
The backstory
Alicia Fernnadze is a mother, a rapper and an entrepreneur who runs her own to-go restaurant. A Detroiter through and through, she grew up in northwest Detroit in a neat, single-family home. Her father, a General Motors line worker, pinched pennies for years to buy it.
When her parents moved to a new place across town in 2013, they offered her the house on Blackstone Street. Wanting to raise her daughter where she grew up, Fernnadze moved in but struggled to keep up with Detroit’s property taxes, which are among Michigan’s highest.
In 2017, she and her 3-year-old daughter lost the home over $3,000 in unpaid taxes. They moved in with her parents. To make the arrangement work, she had her beloved pit bull, Red, euthanized.
Two years later, the Wayne County Treasurer’s Office auctioned off the house for $11,000 — an $8,000 profit.
Stories like hers are common in Detroit. Wayne County made $20 million from about 2,400 tax foreclosures citywide between 2015 and 2020, according to an analysis by Alex Alsup, vice president of research and development at Regrid, a property data company. This figure only includes homes believed to be owner-occupied at the time of foreclosure.
Recent Michigan Supreme Court rulings said it’s unconstitutional for counties to keep money over and above the taxes owed on properties — and that former homeowners can claim those profits from previous tax auctions. The court decisions apply to the whole state, but Outlier is focusing only on properties in Detroit.
Since her eviction, Fernnadze has kept an eye on her old house, and she stays in touch with friends from the block. She said the house hasn’t been occupied since she left, a fact that leaves her furious with the people who profited from her loss.
“You guys come get my home, take it to auction, put me and my toddler daughter out, and the house just sits,” she said. “It's like, what were you even doing it for?”
Who qualifies
Did you lose a home to tax foreclosure in Detroit between 2015 and 2020?
To find out if Wayne County could owe you money, text your address to 67485, our TXT OUTLIER service. You can also look up your former address here.
If you’re not on the list but you experienced a tax foreclosure during that period, reach out to us anyway. Errors in county property data may exclude eligible homeowners.
Appearing on the list also doesn’t guarantee a payout. Given the low quality of the data, Alsup said there are a few reasons the homeowner identified in his database could be incorrect.
The only way to find out for sure is to submit this claim form before the March 31 deadline.
How to claim the money
Help us help Detroiters get their money
A group of Detroiters — including our team at Outlier — is working to help our neighbors reclaim money Wayne Co. owes them from tax foreclosure auctions.
If you’d like to help, send us an email.
Submitting the form is the first step in a monthslong, complicated process.
We’ve heard warnings that unscrupulous lawyers might try to get a share of the money by offering to help people fill out the necessary forms — but there are plenty of Detroiters ready to assist at no charge.
Once Outlier reached her, Fernnadze asked for help. We found an old deed online through the county’s Register of Deeds that had the information she needed to complete the claim form. She went downtown and paid $25 to notarize it at a UPS Store (free notary services are also available at banks and credit unions, and various nonprofits in the city). From there, she went to the Wayne County Treasurer’s Office, where she placed it in a designated box. It can also be submitted by certified mail.
Next, the Treasurer is supposed to inform Fernnadze of what she’s owed by July 1, 2025. Then, she’ll need to file a motion in Wayne County Circuit Court by Oct. 1, after which a hearing date would be set.
Click here for a more detailed description of the process, or visit the Wayne County Treasurer’s website to fill out the form.
Not justice, but better than nothing
An estimated 2,700 Detroiters are owed an average of $8,000 each — more than enough to make a real difference in peoples’ lives. Fernnadze said she’d use her payout to cover back taxes on her current house or to try to repurchase her childhood home, which remains tax delinquent under its current owner.
Still, the prospect of recovering money from a past foreclosure is bittersweet for many Detroiters. The Michigan Supreme Court's rulings address only the county’s profits from foreclosures, not the deeper injustices of Detroit's foreclosure crisis.
The money won’t erase the pain of eviction or losing a family home, and it will rarely come close to covering the financial losses caused by foreclosure in the city.
Fernnadze's case is typical. Her childhood home is worth about $66,800 today — more than eight times what she is expected to receive from the county. Alsup estimates that if every eligible person submitted the form and followed through with the claims process, the treasurer could have to return $20 million in profits. Today, those homes are worth about $120 million.
“This is not compensation” for the injustices of the foreclosure crisis, said Sonja Bonnett, a housing specialist at the Detroit Justice Center whose home was foreclosed in 2014. “This is money that has always been owed to these people. But most of us shouldn't have lost our homes in the first place.”
This article first appeared on Outlier Media and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
