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PAIR FIGHT BOGUS TAX LIENS – Couple nearly lose home over name mix-up
Ohio Lawyers Weekly,
June 17, 2002For 14 years, credit reports have shown Sharon and Timothy A. Brumbaugh buried under thousands of dollars of someone else's tax debt. And until two months ago, they had no idea.
The Stark County treasurer filed a foreclosure proceeding on the Brumbaughs' Garfield Avenue SW house Oct. 29. The couple owed about $6,000 in real-estate taxes and penalties, according to court records.Timothy 54, is a metal fabricator. Sharon, 53, makes flower arrangements.
Sharon Brumbaugh said she and her husband got behind on payments during the late l990s, when each developed serious health problems and spent time in the hospital.
When they learned of the foreclosure, the Brumbaughs tried to get a loan to pay the tax bill and save the house that was their Valentine's Day gift in 1977.
But the banks said no. The Internal Revenue Service, Ohio Department of Taxation and Bureau of Workers' Compensation had $61,000 in liens against Timothy Brumbaugh, according to court records.
In 1990, the couple had run into a similar problem with a lien from the compensation bureau. Sharon Brumbaugh told the bureau they had the wrong person, but it still showed up on the credit report and was listed in the foreclosure filing.
As for the other tax liens, that was the first time the Brumbaughs had heard anything about them. They also knew that they didn't owe them.
So Sharon Brumbaugh started digging, culling documents - tax filings, lien records, letters - and keeping them in a neat, blue folder.
According to court records, $18,287 of the liens were against Timothy R. Brumbaugh, not Timothy A. Brumbaugh.
Another $42,308 in federal taxes was owed by a "Timothy Brumbaugh," but Sharon Brumbaugh has copies of her IRS filings for most of the years in question. According to those records, in at least one year the penalty assessed against "Timothy Brumbaugh" was twice the Brumbaughs' annual income.
"I don't know what the man does for a living," Sharon Brumbaugh said. "But he makes a whole lot more money than we do."
When she made the rounds to the IRS, Ohio Department of Taxation and Bureau of Workers' Compensation, no one could help her.
"It was so frustrating, it was just unbelievable," she said.
The bureaucrats agreed that they had the wrong person, she said, but they told her there was nothing they could do about it.
"It got to the point where I couldn't take it any further on my own," Sharon said. "I was told by the IRS to contact an attorney."
Earlier this week, the Brumbaughs enlisted attorney Allen Schulman Jr. to help them. He took the case for free.
The Brumbaughs' story checked out with the documents, Schulman said. He contacted the Stark County prosecutor's office and U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Bethlehem Township.
"This couple got their arm caught in the machinery of justice and were ground up, while everyone acknowledges that they aren't the right person," he said.
Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Katie Chawla said title searches turn up all kinds of names and potential debts. The more common a name is, the more likely it is that a lien will show up.
By the time the Brumbaughs' situation came to light, the state and workers' compensation bureau had already determined that they had no claims against Timothy A. Brumbaugh after cross-referencing Social Security numbers, Chawla said.
The federal government was still asserting a claim, but Chawla said she asked the U.S. attorney's office in Cleveland to check again. On Wednesday, the Brumbaughs received a letter saying the IRS was also dropping its claim.
But the other problem for the Brumbaughs was that the liens showed up on their credit report.
Chawla said she has asked the court to dismiss the state, IRS and Bureau of Workers' Compensation from the foreclosure case, which should help the Brumbaughs prove to mortgage companies that those agencies don't have liens against them.Sharon Brumbaugh said she and her husband are grateful for Schulman's help.
"I feel bad that there could be other people out there with the same name who don't know that this can happen to you," she said.
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