three days later, it comes back mark marked as undeliverable. then, the tax collector sent it to the old address. but we know it happened that time. that notice came back to the tax collector's office and when that happens, the tax collector must, under law, under constitutional law, under public policy and under common sense take additional steps to notify the property owner before selling the property, but the tax collector did nothing. now, the law, as i said is the easy part here. it's not complicated. the supreme court has ruled and california courts have ruled just as well that if the tax collector has reason to believe that the notice didn't reach the property owners, he's got to do something more. this is true even if the property owner failed to keep his mailing address up to date with the tax collector. here's what the supreme court said in jones versus flowers: quote, we hold when mailed a notice of a tax sale is returned unclaimed the state must take additional reasonable steps to notify the property owner before selling his property

even a certified mail came back as undeliverable. nonetheless a san jose couple bought the street during the 2015 online tax lien sale for $90,000. and amount approved unanimously by the board of supervisors two years ago. but that raises a constitutional property rights issue. did the tax collector in san francisco do the process right? >> reporter: the homeowner association argues that legal precedents required the city to do a better job of reaching homeowners before selling their street. >> the government is on notice that attack sale notices been returned, do you, government, have an obligation to take additional and reasonable steps to do so quite the evidence shows that in 2015 that did not happen in the presidio terrace case. >> reporter: even nationwide there are people and companies who are looking for unpaid tax liens so they can pick up valuable property for pennies on the dollar. in this case but they picked up is the street which is bad news for the people who live along that street. >> the steps that were supposed to h

and they say the notice of sale for their private street had been returned as undeliverable by the postal. >> the more evidence that we have uncovered, the more we have convincingly established that in fact the san francisco treasurer and tax collector's office did fail in its constitutional burden to meet the due process requirements of notifying homeowners. >> reporter: now, the city treasurer says the property tax bills were sent to the address on record and the city maintains it did nothing wrong during this process. but the hoa is asking that the board of supervisors rescind this sale, calling the transaction unlawful and unfair. now, the board of supervisors will be taking up this issue at a special meeting that will get underway at 3:00 this afternoon. at san francisco city hall. >> well, very interesting discussion about that particular street. we will see what the board decides later today. thank you, alex. >>> state lawmakers holding a hearing on sexual harassment at the state capitol. the sub committee will debate and recommend ways to improve enforcement. the hears was schedul

reporter: the hoa also claims that the notice of sale for their private street had been returned as undeliverable by the postal service. now, the city treasurer says those property tax bills were all being sent to the address on record. and the city maintain that's it did nothing wrong. but still the hoa is asking the board of supervisors to rescind this sale, calling the transaction unlawful and unjust. and the board of supervisors is expected to take a vote on this controversial issue and decide whether to overturn the sale of the small street in san francisco. that will happen at a special meeting at 3:00 this afternoon at city hall. >> very interesting to see that vote and how it turns out. thanks, alex. if my accountant retires, is it my responsibility and i live in a separate county, is it my responsibility to let the county know about what is going on and where to send the bills. >> i don't know. >> is it my retired accountant's responsibility. >> he is in hawaii now. >> i do remember this story made national headlines. >> $14 a year. >> right. >> let's move on to the weather, steve. it is

and then, relative to the reasonableness standard, can you tell us, once it came back as undeliverable, what additional steps you or your staff took to attempt to have -- make contact with the owner? >> sure. we rely on state law and state controller's procedural manual. we posted -- we published the list of auction items in the paper, and we made it available on our website, and we brought it here to the board of supervisors in a public hearing, with the entire list of parcels, and -- and those were the items that were available to do at that time. what i think we've learned since then is we certainly could have taken these hundreds and hundreds of vacant lots and timeshares and done more work to find out more. there's actually a procedure that we're familiar with through our debt collection site of our shop called skiptracing that actually broadens out a search and looks for more information related to either debtors or property owners. certainly, if we had done that at that time, we would have identify the presidio terrace association address. but certainly, we wouldn't do something

code says you're supposed to do for these sales, but then, they got the letter back that said undeliverable. that imposes on them a burden to do something more to make sure that that particular property owner gets notice, whether it's posting the property, which would have been incredibly simple here, whether it's researching as i showed you all the policies from the other counties, researching for a better address. that would have been quite simple here. that is the burden that they have before they can sell someone's property. >>supervisor kim: dow thi youk it's practical for the treasurer's notice in the city, 600 lots, some underwater and other cliffs. >> i don't think the wyattest thing to do for an underwater lot is posted, but i do think they're responsible to make sure that that property owner is notified. today, come on. today, let's compare what the tax code requires: an ad in the local paper versus the internet age we're living in? it's just antiquated. nobody who doesn't know that they paid their taxes is going to look at the san francisco examiner in the fine print to see if ge