The City of Fitchburg, MA Lied

In 1997 David and Debra Brogna purchased the home in which they had lived for most of their lives, from a relative for $25,000. In 1999 they went to the City of Fitchburg, MA to pay on delinquent taxes in order ot remove a lien the city had placed on the home. They paid the taxes and were told the lien was removed. This was a lie.

In 2003 they made again an other huge lump sum payment to the City of Fitchburg for property and house taxes and when they asked the clerk they payed if it was payed off they were told, "Yes". Which again was a lie. They have been paying their taxes for years and were called into court the other day to deal with a problem concerning the taxes. They went to court only to find out that the lien they were told was removed, was not because they were never given the proper documentation by the clerk to remove the lien after the lump sum cash payment was made. The error on the part of the clerk to which they had paid those many years ago has resulted in my family now oweing 26,000 in back taxes.

The City's collector stated that since the lien was never removed, the thousands of dollars that my parents have been paying in taxes in fact only has payed the lien. And now the City of Fitchburg, MA wants this fraudulently overdue money and refuses to acknowledge the error on their part. When the clerk was asked by my father if the account was all set and paid in full, and the lien taken off, he should have been given the proper paperwork in order to make it official. Instead his money went missing and the lien was never removed. The person whom was receiveing the payments made by my family is also a person who was being brought up on charges of embesselment in the high thousands, but died mysteriously in a drowning accident.

So the City of Fitchburg, MA is taking absolutely no responsibility for this error and are charging my parents 16% on the back taxes everyday until they decide to take the house in the third week of May. This will put my 56 year old parents, my 8 year old neice they have custody of, and me 35 and my 6 year old son on the street with absolutely no where to go.

Pleas for help on relatives that had benefited from my parents generosity has fallen on deaf ears and the City of Fitchburg, MA, well Mayor Wong has seen to destroying that and refusing to address the lies my parents were told. Had they not had been misinformed or more to the point lied to by the City of Fitchburg when they paid the taxes in full in the requested "Cash" format there wouldnt be any fear at all of 5 people, two of which are minors under 12, becoming homeless in less than 30 days.

How can Fitchburg, MA do this? Are they not responsible for what their employee has done to my family? When my father asked in 1999 "Now we are all set and paid in full and the lien removed?" The clerk said "YES". When he asked in 2000, "Now we are all set and paid in full?" The same clerk again said, "YES" and when he asked in 2003, "We are all set and paid in full?" he was once again yessed by the man who cannot be called to court because of his mysterious death. It is true that dead men tell no tales and how convenient for the City of Fitchburg, MA.