Somersville Mill Twice Goes to Tax Sale

The historic on Saturday was sent to a tax sale twice, according to the Somers tax collector. Tax Collector Donna Doyker said that her criteria for sending a property to a tax sale is two years without any correspondence or effort made to pay the taxes. The taxes were not paid in 2008 and 2009 by owners Tibor and Maria Orosz, so on Sept. 23, 2010, a tax sale was held and the mill was purchased by Ralph Guisti for $33,000. Guisti was the one who fixed up the building on Quality Avenue that had been part of the mill complex. Let Patch save you time. Get great local stories like this delivered right to your inbox or smartphone every day with our free newsletter. Simple, fast sign-up here. “We were very excited,” Doyker said. “He was the perfect person to buy it. He was willing to work with the town.” However, the Oroszs had a six month time period in which to pay the taxes and at the eleventh hour – a week before the deadline – they paid. While Doyker has the two year criteria, if the property has already been to a tax sale, one day delinquent will send it to another tax sale. So on May 17 of this year, the mill once again went to a tax sale and was purchased for $21,053.54 by Venture Capitals, LLC out of New York, New York. The IRS has filed a $194,000 tax lien against the mill, and there is also a $1.993 million lien against the mill, filed by a relative of Tibor Orosz. Even though the building has burned down, it belongs to Venture Capitals, as long as it is not paid off. “They own it,” Doyker said. “If Orosz doesn’t redeem it, it’s theirs. Whatever it is, whether it’s a vacant 5.5 acre piece of land or what, it’s theirs. They bought it. They couldn’t touch it, they couldn’t look at it, they couldn’t go in it, they couldn’t talk to the owner. That’s how you buy it, you buy it on a drive by. This is a buyer beware thing when you buy at a tax sale.” She said that Venture Capitals is aware that the building has burned and that it belongs to it if it is not paid off. Neither Venture Capitals or the Oroszs could be reached for comment. In 2006, the mill was still owned by the Somers Historic Mill Association, and the association decided to abandon its efforts to develop it, so they called First Selectman David Pinney and told him he could go ahead with a foreclosure. In March 2008, during the foreclosure process, Doyker received several calls, out of the blue, about how much the taxes were on the mill. Then a man came in with a check from the Law Office of Richard Johnson and paid all the back taxes and the back sewer fees – an amount that Doyker said was significant. The new owner was Bill 18, LLC with the acting, managing member listed as William Sharrocks of 64 Maple St. in Somersville. Within a few days, the property was quit claimed over to Maria Orosz, trustee of HLM 2008 Trust. In the midst of all this, there was a deed of trust between Maria Orosz and Tibor Orosz, her husband. From 2008 to 2010, the town, through the Somersville Revitalization Committee, tried to work with the Oroszs to find a developer who would be interested in buying and developing the mill. Doyker said that there were a few developers interested, but nothing ever happened.