Friday - November 18, 2005

Taxed Twice, Sued Forever

This almost reads like an episode from The Twilight Zone. The family in the story below obviously live in the wrong place. I’m thinking it may be time for them to move their house two feet west ... or south ... or east ... or ... oh, forget it - there are taxmen on all sides, it seems. Better just to blow the house up, collect the insurance and move to another state. Problem solved.

Schools Suing For $35K Tuition
Forest Hills pursues family whose house was on border
CINCINNATI

James and Linda Huegel sent their two children to the Forest Hills School District, and now the school board is suing the couple for $35,485 in back tuition from 1993 to 1999. The district says the couple lived in the 8000 block of Forest Pine Drive, which was in the West Clermont School District at the time, according to the suit filed in Clermont County Common Pleas Court. The residence was transferred to the Forest Hills district in 2000.

Forest Hills sued the couple in October 2000, but Clermont County Common Pleas Court ruled it did not have jurisdiction until the Ohio Department of Education ruled. The district turned to the Court of Appeals, which agreed with the trial court’s decision. The Ohio Supreme Court refused the case.

The Department of Education ruled in June that the Huegels were not Forest Hills residents before the 1999-2000 school year and that their attendance was unauthorized. On Aug. 19, the Forest Hills School Board demanded full payment of tuition, but the Huegels haven’t paid, the lawsuit said.

Ohio law says that school districts must provide free public education to students living within their geographic borders, but districts are allowed to set tuition amounts for out-of-district residents who want to enroll.

Part of the Forest Pine residence is located in Clermont County, and part of it is in Hamilton County, said Bronston McCord, attorney for Forest Hills. The Huegels’ developer told them that their house is in Forest Hills, which was incorrect, McCord said. Every other house on the street is in Forest Hills. McCord said it’s unlikely that the Huegels didn’t know they were in the wrong school district, because they received two tax bills - one from Hamilton County and a larger one from Clermont County. Both list the school district.

Whether the Huegels knew that they were sending their kids to the wrong district, Forest Hills still has to pursue the matter, McCord said. “The bottom line is that Forest Hills is required by law to collect tuition for the unauthorized attendance.” While building their Forest Pine Drive home in 1993, they discovered the property sat in two school districts, James Huegel said. Because of that, the Huegels sought an Ohio Department of Education opinion in 1993.

“The Ohio Department of Education told us we could attend either school district, because we were paying taxes in both,” Huegel said. But in June 1999, the Huegels received a letter from Forest Hills, saying their children could not attend school there. “They (Forest Hills) have some responsibility in this also to know what property is in their district or what property they believe is in their district,” Huegel said. “It’s not like we gave them a phony address.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 11/18/2005 at 06:48 AM   
Filed Under: • Education • Insanity •  
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