Patterson Woman Loses Half of Home Unknowingly to Neighbor

A woman whose home straddles the New York-Connecticut state line says she didn’t find out for years that she’d been paying property taxes and insurance on something that was no longer hers.

Her neighbor had bought it at a tax auction.

Why was it up for auction? Apparently when Roseanne Di Giulio refinanced her mortgage, the bank paid the Connecticut taxes but not the New York taxes. So the town of Patterson NY put that portion up for sale—her neighbor’s lawyer says there was a sign posted—and Althea Jacob bought it for $275.

• One question: Where’s the money she paid into escrow?

Anyway. Di Giulio found out the troubling truth when she went to get a permit to build a shed on the New York side.

Her neighbor offered to sell it back, she told David McKay Wilson, Tax Watch columnist for The Journal News. First, she said, $150,000, then later $35,000.

Jacob’s lawyer Robert Karlsson seems to think that’s not bad—the mortgage company would have to pay it, not Di Giulio, he apparently told the press.

He also said his client just wanted more land to add to her property—but apparently she owns Di Giulio’s living room and kitchen as well. The state line runs right through the house.

”Complicating the situation is the fact that the property seems to have three addresses and is very difficult to locate,” said Lou Young of CBS2.

Di Giulio told Wilson she doesn’t think Jacob should profit from the bank’s lapse. She is trying to get the whole thing straightened out in court, but the statute of limitations has run out, so she may be out of luck.

Read Wilson’s original column here on lohud.com

Read the Daily Mail’s version here.

Read and watch the CBS New York report here.