10/23/16 — Council member Antonio Williams past due on taxes

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Council member Antonio Williams past due on taxes

By Rochelle Moore
Published in News on October 23, 2016 12:42 AM

Antonio Williams

Goldsboro Councilman Antonio Williams is facing foreclosure on a downtown property he owns after failing to pay property taxes since 2011.

Williams, the council's District 1 representative, also has a 2015 court judgment requiring he pay a Currituck County woman $36,432 for a personal loan he reneged on in 2010.

Details of the unpaid taxes, pending foreclosure and property lien were uncovered during a Goldsboro News-Argus investigation that follows a driving while license revoked charge Williams is facing in Wayne County court.

Court documents show that Williams borrowed $36,000 from Percy and Dorothy Sellers, of Aydlett, to purchase a property at 143 N. Center St. for $35,000 in 2007.

Williams and Akeata Moore, owners of the Center Street building, made monthly payments for two years but eventually stopped the payments in April 2010, court documents show.

A Wayne County district court judge ruled in Sellers favor, in 2015, ordering Williams to pay $27,454 toward the loan and $8,978 in interest. Moore is not named in the court judgment.

"I had lent Antonio the money," said Dorothy Sellers. "We both agreed to do it to help him buy the building. We thought we were going to help someone. I did what I thought was right at the time."

Sellers, whose husband passed away several years ago, is listed as a lienholder on the Center Street property. As the lienholder, her name also appears on court documents recently filed by the county's foreclosure attorney, Helen Baddour, with the Baddour, Parker, Hine and Hale law firm. Baddour filed a complaint in Wayne County District Court on Sept. 27, as the first step in the foreclosure process.

The city of Goldsboro and Wayne County have a first lien and right to the property, according to state law, due to the $2,877 in delinquent taxes owed to both units of government, according to the court complaint.

If the property is sold at a foreclosure auction on the county courthouse steps, Sellers will not receive any money, Baddour said. The foreclosure sale -- a process that could take months -- includes a sale price that covers the cost of back taxes and foreclosure-related expenses, including court and attorney fees, according to the court complaint. Money owed to Sellers is not a part of the sale price, Baddour said.

"We sell the property free and clear," Baddour said. "There will not be any liens on the property. Whoever is the next owner will be taking the property free and clear of any liens."

The one way Sellers could still recover the money is if Williams and Moore pay the property taxes and keep the building.

"If Antonio Williams pays taxes, the lien will still be there," Baddour said.

DELINQUENT TAXES

Williams and Moore bought the downtown building in 2007 and paid property taxes, most times late, each year until early 2012, tax records show.

"The previous years were paid," said Alan Lumpkin, Wayne County tax administrator. "Everything in 2010 was paid."

Tax department staff started the process of trying to collect back taxes in 2014, a process that involved trying to garnish wages and a bank levy, said Vicky Granillo, collection division manager in the Wayne County tax office.

"It's been something we've been working on for years," she said.

Granillo said collection staff were unable to garnish wages after not finding an employer, and a bank levy wasn't possible after staff did not find a bank account, Granillo said. Williams paid his taxes with money orders or a credit card, she said.

In the earlier years, property tax bills were mailed to a Goldsboro post office box. Since 2009, tax bills have been mailed to the address listed on the property tax record, in Queen Village, N.Y., Granillo said.

After being unable to collect the taxes, tax office staff took the final step in mailing a 30-day warning letter that the property could head toward foreclosure due to multiple years of unpaid taxes, Lumpkin said.

"It's like a final warning," Lumpkin said. "When we've exhausted all our other avenues, foreclosure is the last thing we do."

The letter was mailed to the New York address and to 143 N. Center St., in Goldsboro, Granillo said.

On Tuesday, Williams said he was completely unaware that the downtown property was headed to foreclosure. He declined to say if he regularly received property tax bills at the New York address.

"I haven't had any letters sent to me," Williams said. "I have paid taxes on the property."

FORECLOSURE

Sellers was served with a civil summons and court documents related to the pending foreclosure on Oct. 4, a week after the complaint was filed.

Civil summons records show that sheriffs were charged with serving Williams at the 143 N. Center St. address and Moore at a Burlington, Mass., address.

"I haven't been served anything," Williams said Tuesday. "I don't know anything about it. This is the first I'm hearing.

"This is a problem. People don't tell you that something is going on. That's a problem, because I'm available. Everybody knows I live here."

Williams is a visible figure in the community from his downtown business, The Ice Storm, and regularly attends Goldsboro City Council meetings once every two weeks. He said he is working on the Center Street property and is out in the community helping residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.

"This doesn't make any sense," Williams said. "I'm spending money in there every day to work on it, and people are not telling me there's some issues."

Allen Anderson Jr., Goldsboro's chief building inspector, said that Williams has a building permit and is working to convert the second floor of the Center Street property into an apartment. No certificate of occupancy has been issued, which would allow someone to live in the building, Anderson said.

"He's working on his apartment upstairs," Anderson said. "I don't think he's actually living there. He doesn't have power."

Serving Sellers, Williams and Moore with the civil summons is key before the foreclosure process can move forward, Baddour said.

After an interview with the News-Argus Tuesday, Williams and Moore went to the foreclosure attorney's office and signed an acceptance of service, Baddour said.

Moore and Williams declined to comment Friday.

AUCTION SALE

The process of selling the property in foreclosure is lengthy and allows time for appeals, as well as property tax payments that can halt the entire process.

"At any point and time up to the point of sale, they can come in and pay all the taxes and fees on the property, and we'll stop the proceedings," Lumpkin said.

Williams and Moore have 30 days to answer the complaint before the foreclosure attorney seeks a court judgment allowing the sale, Baddour said. The summary judgment also provides the defendants with 30 days to appeal.

Following a judgment, the date and time of the foreclosure sale is posted inside the county courthouse and published in the local newspaper, the Goldsboro News-Argus, once a week for two weeks.

If the property is sold at foreclosure on the courthouse steps, the sale will need to be finalized by a judge, Baddour said.

Williams and Moore have the ability to stop the process by paying the taxes and foreclosure-related fees up until the time the sale is finalized in court, Baddour said.

"The law gives them every last chance to pay off their taxes," Baddour said. "That's what we want to happen. We want him to pay his taxes."

If the property fails to sell at foreclosure, 143 N. Center St. would be deeded to the city of Goldsboro and Wayne County, Lumpkin said.

BORROWED MONEY

Sellers, who is frustrated knowing she won't recover the lien during foreclosure, only recently learned that a district court judge issued a 2015 judgment ordering Williams to repay more than $27,000 from the money she loaned to him nine years ago.

Information about the judgment is included in the court complaint Sellers received when she was served with the civil summons.

"That's what it says, but he's never paid a penny," Sellers said.

The Sellers met Williams years ago when he visited their home in Currituck County."I just thought he was a good friend to my son, and he seemed like a nice man, and he said he would pay it back," Sellers said. "Antonio's a very ambitious young man, but you need to be honest along with your ambition."

The Sellers loaned Williams the money after taking out a mortgage on a 7-acre property they owned, she said. Williams signed a promissory note, which became part of a 2011 lawsuit Sellers filed against Williams. "I mortgaged a piece of property for Antonio," Sellers said. "When Antonio didn't pay me back, I had to pay the loan. I refinanced everything. I refinanced that property and my house to pay it off."

Sellers, who is 81 and living on a fixed income, said she is still paying down the debt.

"I just want the money owed me," she said.

Williams declined to answer any questions about the loan or details surrounding the agreement with Sellers.