A suspicious laggard sauntered up the steps outside my house at 409 N 9th St carrying a piece of paper and a blue roll of masking tape. He plastered a homemade eviction notice onto my front door. The stranger didn’t represent the sheriff or any government official: rather the note appealed to the authority of a Waterloo-based lawyer, soliciting on behalf of a mysterious entity, ACC in Des Moines, who claimed to be the new homeowner. I took the crooked note about as seriously as I would’ve an old letter from Ed McMahon or an email from a Nigerian prince. But, later that day, when out walking, a neighbor casually inquired as to a move-out date, mentioning she’d seen a snippet in the Times-Republican. And that was how I found out. My house had been sold by Marshall County for $1200 or 0.65% of its value. And this can happen to you too.

How could this be legal? The city is often confronted with what to do about abandoned homes. In an attempt to reduce expenses and recover tax revenue, state governments privatized debt collection, which allowed investors to pay the back-taxes in return for taking ownership, supposedly with the intention to renovate. This saves the city from having to demolish the house and gives the community better options to rent or buy.

But there’s a huge loophole. The law isn’t restricted to abandoned and neglected houses. There’s nothing stopping them from taking yours. This loophole wouldn’t be too useful to predators by itself if it were not paired with an antiquated notification system. Despite the fact that all of a homeowner’s tax payments are online via e-check and that the treasury possesses his email address, any tax lien notification is sent only via physical mail. And said mail originates from the mysterious third-party. Homeowners who don’t reside at, nor receive mail at the property become primary targets. This enables predators to snipe a payment and then lie in wait knowing that notices will not be seen.

Believing that attempts to take your house is just a clerical error would be naïve. These predators know exactly what they’re doing, who to target, how to legally protect themselves and how to use the county treasury’s inconsistent messaging to their advantage. Until the law is changed at the state level you need to protect yourself. Otherwise, you might end up like me and have to pay a hefty ransom to buy back your own house.