Rich SF Homeowners Prepare For Legal Battle Against Asian Couple That Owns Their Street

Former city attorney staff Scott Emblidge and Matt Dorsey along with former chief-of-staff Boe Hayward will all be working on shedding the light of the homeowners’ side of the story to the public. According to SanFranciscoChronicle, the homeowners have set their sights on the city tax collector’s office, who they believe has failed to adequately inform them about the tax auction.

Dorsey explained that there had been “a comedy of errors” that led to the homeowners losing their street but still believes that the city office was partially at fault. “The careless notification process by the tax collector’s office fell far short of the legal standard for a reasonable effort,” Dorsey added.

Fortunately for the homeowners, Supervisor Mark Ferrell was able to convince his board colleagues to hold a hearing on the tax sale in order to ensure that they have “all the facts.” The Presidio Terrace Homeowners Association will have to hope that the hearing goes in their favor once it happens on November 28.

While the homeowners are trying their best to persuade supervisors into scraping the tax auction, the street’s new owners Michael Cheng and Tina Lam aren’t too worried. Cheng revealed that the supervisors haven’t mentioned anything about revoking the tax sale so he’s confident that they’re “on sound legal footing.”

Supervisor Aaron Peskin advised the Presidio Terrace homeowners to discuss the matter with the street’s new owners to “work something out” instead of waiting for the hearing. “Unless they can show clearly and convincingly that proper procedures were not followed, I see no reason to rescind the sale. Sales like this happen every day to all kinds of people and businesses,” Peskin added.

Treasurer Jose Cisneros’ office defended their stance on the matter stating that the city did not do anything wrong since they sent the bills to the same address that the homeowners provided. Asian couple Michael and Tina of San Jose, nabbed the deal of their life when they bought the Presidio Terrace street in an online auction for $90,100. The prestigious San Francisco street containing 38 mansions which costs about $5 million each, was auctioned off back in 2015 when the homeowners’ unpaid taxes amounted to $994.

Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons / Cullen328 (CC BY-SA 3.0)