More Government Tyranny- A Handicap 76 year Old Widow Has Lost her Home due to A Billing Error Made By The City Of Salisbury

In 2011 the City of Salisbury told a home owner who is a 76 year old handicapped widow and a lifelong Democrat that she owed $100 because her grass was higher than the ordinance allows and the city had to take it upon themselves to cut it. The problem is that never happened. The homeowner pays a local landscaping service to maintain her lawn and according to him the grass has never been high enough to be in violation of the ordinance in the past decade since he has been looking after this particular property.

The elderly lady immediately notified both the city of Salisbury and Neighborhood Services showing them copies of paid bills from her landscaper as proof she wasn’t in violation of the ordinance. They never responded, therefore, she believed the matter to be resolved. She is living off of her social security and her home, which was paid for, represented a large portion of her entire net worth. The fiasco which was to follow caused both her and her daughter considerable stress, heartache and even led to medical problems.

In 2012 she received the bill again and immediately sent certified letters to the City of Salisbury notifying them of the error and her letters went ignored. Later in 2012, she received a summons to go to court due to the unpaid grass cutting fee which was now up to over $200 due to late fees and interest. When she went to court, she looked on the docket, located her name and went in the proper courtroom with documents in hand where she intended to win her case, only the hearing never happened. She was surprised to find the designated courtroom empty. She took a seat in a row and a man in a suit with a briefcase who appeared to be a lawyer told her she didn’t need to have a hearing. She could just go out in the lobby and speak to Susan Phillips, the Director of Neighborhood Services and Code Compliance. According to the homeowner, Ms. Phillips was nice, looked over her documents and told her when she got back to her office she would look into her complaint. Phillips said if the grass really was in violation, there would be photographs of it and she would send copies of the pictures to the homeowner. If not, she promised to correct the billing error. Phillips never sent the photographs and the homeowner once again thought the billing error had been corrected.

More

My Version of the Story:

My Mom's home is located at 203 New York Avenue. She is retired and a window. Because she gets lonely, she travels often. I live nearby in Ocean City. My name is on the deed and I look after her house especially when she is away.

Back in October 2011, Mom received a bill from the City of Salisbury for $100. They said her grass was too high and in violation of code and that the City had to cut it.(They said the date they cut it was October 7, 2011) I knew this had to be a mistake because ever since we have owned the house, we have hired an expensive professional landscaper who keeps our entire yard in beautiful condition. My Mom keeps her house beautiful. Her yard is not only one of the nicest yards on her street, it is one of the prettiest yards and homes in the entire neighborhood. She is very proud of it. My Mom and I immediately notified the City that the bill must be a mistake and sent them paid invoices from our private landscaper who we hired showing that he cut the grass on the following dates:
October 5, 2014
October 12, 2014
October 24, 2014
Our landscaper is Carmen from Cutting Crew Lawn Care. He works with the City of Salisbury and many employees from the City of Salisbury know and like him.

They never responded to our letter or sent another bill that year. So, we assumed they had corrected their mistake.

Then in 2012 the bill came again only it was a higher amount because of late fees and interest. Again we sent certified letters to the City of Salisbury stating our belief that the bill was an error and showing a copy of our paid invoice to our private landscaper. Letters were sent to both the Division Street office and the Church street office. I saved copies of the letters and I have copies of the certified receipts and the signature proof that the letters were delivered. At the Church street office T. Washington signed for it. At the Division street office Susan C. Lovent signed for delivery. Once again nobody from Salisbury responded to our letters.

Then we received a summons to go to court for this matter.(2012) My Mom and I were hoping we would get a hearing so that we could present our case and our side of the story. Instead we were told to talk to Susan Phillips in the lobby. We showed her our paid invoice proving we had cut our grass ourselves. She said she would look into it back at her office and if the city had made a mistake, she would correct it. She said if the City really had cut our grass, she would have photographs of the grass being too high which she would send to us. Susan Phillips never sent us photographs and we didn't get a bill again for another year. Therefore, once again we assumed the situation had been corrected.

A year later in 2013, we received the bill again for a much higher amount. Again I sent certified return receipt letters which I kept the receipts for and again we were ignored.

The next letter we got was in August 2014 notifying us that the City had put a lien on our property, then had a tax sale and sold the house for half of what it was worth. All of this was due to this $100 mistake for this grass bill. No matter how hard I have tried nobody from the City was willing to correct this for me.

The first step my Mom took to get the house back was to save a little money each month and borrow money from myself and others until she had an extra $750 to send to Mr.James Truitt, the purchaser, to purchase an embossed acknowledgement, which we did. (However, according to that document we only have until mid November to redeem the house or further fees will be owed. The City is currently slowing this process down.)

On Monday October 27th, my Mom and I went to the government building on Division street to try to work this out. We spent most of the day talking to people there. We still don't feel we should have to pay the $380 lien which was the original $100 grass cutting bill which we still don't believe we owe. The county office told us we would have to straighten it out with the city and that there was nothing the county could do. We talked to four different people on the first floor who were with the City of Salisbury. None of them felt they could help us and each person respectively went to get their supervisor. Eventually we were told to sign in and were taken upstairs to have a short sit down meeting with Tom Stevenson, the City Administrator. He was kind and was the first person in three years who appeared to be willing to help us. You can't imagine what a relief this felt like to us after struggling with this problem and being frustrated for over three long years. He looked at the acknowledgement and our paid invoices from our landscaper. He said he would be meeting with Susan Phillips the next day, Tuesday, and would look into it and try to help us out.

We waited all day but he didn't call us on Tuesday. On Wednesday I called him and gave his secretary my name. He didn't take my call. It went to voice mail. I left a message. Ten minutes later Susan Phillips called me. The buck had been passed again. Sigh. She seemed a little angry. She still claimed that the city had cut our grass and that we owed the money and she claimed to have photographs of our grass being high. When I asked her to please mail me copies of the photographs, she refused. She felt like I should show her photographs of my grass being low. She also wanted me to take off work in Ocean City and drive to Salisbury to show her photographs of my grass being low. I'm sorry but I think it's unreasonable for the city to expect property owners to take weekly pictures of their grass just in case they need to prove it was cut. Like the attached article says, I'm innocent until proven guilty. The burden of proof lies with the city. If they think my mother and I had a violation, why can't they send me proof? I really don't think I am asking too much after everything the City has put me and my mother through over the last three years due to this situation. After I got off the phone with her, I had my landscaper Carmen from Cutting Crew Lawn Care call her. Carmen knows Susan Phillips and Tom Stevenson. They all work together and like each other. Carmen swore to Susan Phillips that in the ten years we have used his landscaping service that our yard has NEVER been high or been in violation of the city code, not once in ten years! He told her if she had pictures of our grass being in violation that he would pay the fee himself. Susan Phillips wouldn't share photos with him either. Even after he swore he cut my grass, Susan told him. "I haven't decided what I am going to do" I also tried to call Tom Stevenson a couple times towards the end of the day but nothing got resolved.

In the meantime, I tried to pay our property taxes during the month of October but the county sent them back. They refuse to accept them until I get this grass cutting lien removed and officially redeem the property. So, the longer the City of Salisbury takes to either remove the lien or let me have a hearing to air my grievances, the more money this will cost my Mom. I had hoped we could fix this before Friday because after the first of November the property taxes will go up. And again it is unfair that my Mom is being punished when it is the City who is dragging their feet and holding this matter up and not my Mom. She was ready to pay her taxes on Monday but because nobody from the City would help us, as of today, we still can't pay the County our taxes.

Nobody will help my Mom and I. Like the attached article says for three years people keep passing the buck to someone else.

THIS IS AN URGENT MATTER! My mom will lose her home in two weeks if we can't resolve this. Please find it in your heart to help us work this out within the next day or two.