UPPER DARBY, Pa. (WPVI) — The 6abc Action News Investigative Team recently brought you a story about a 91-year-old woman on the verge of being forced out of her home.

She is losing it for her failure to pay her property taxes on time during the pandemic, despite having hundreds of thousands in equity.

Now, Pennsylvania State Representative Gina Curry from Upper Darby is calling for change.

“This is disturbing,” said Curry. “And so this is where we need to really pay attention to say, ‘What does the process look like from the top to the bottom?'”

Gloria Gaynor only has days to stay in the only home she’s ever owned.

Her legal options appear exhausted, and the courts have ruled against her.

But Curry reached out to the Investigative Team because she wants to make sure there are no other future Gloria Gaynors.

“The information that’s coming out about it feels like it could be preventable,” she said.

Gaynor’s plight began in 2020 when government offices were on lockdown.

Gaynor stayed indoors, like many people her age, and failed to pay her roughly $3,500 in property taxes.

Her attorney explains where things went wrong.

“She returns in 2021 and she makes her tax payment,” said Alexander Barth. “The tax collector at the time – I do not know the details of what happened at the tax collector’s office – but that money was applied to the 2021 tax year, not the 2020, leaving what is essentially a donut in her tax payment history.”

Fast forward to September of 2022 and Delaware County conducted what’s called an upset sale, and essentially sold her $3,500 tax debt plus fees and penalties for a little over $14,000 at auction.

But in Pennsylvania, the tax debt is not just sold but essentially the home as well. A home, the family said, that was recently appraised at $250,000.

Gaynor will receive nothing, said her daughter, Jackie Davis.

“She thought about it every day. She cried about it every day. She prayed about it every day. So you know, we’re hoping and praying still,” Davis said.

“This is stripping generational wealth from the have-nots and allowing the haves to have it, real estate developers,” added Barth.

Curry and others involved agree that people need to pay their property taxes. It is a duty to keep municipal coffers and maintain fairness to those who pay their fair share.

But it is the large windfall of equity to the tax lien purchaser that many believe is wrong.

“Anybody could think about that and say, ‘Wait a minute. The math isn’t mathing. Something’s off here,” added Curry.

The US Supreme Court has weighed in on another tax lien case in Minnesota. The case was Tyler versus Hennepin County.

In that case, justices ruled the county couldn’t pocket more from the proceeds of a tax lien sale than it is owed and by doing so violated the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

Simply put, the government cannot take more property than is necessary to satisfy the debt plus fees and penalties.

Attorney Lee Ogburn, works for a Maryland advocacy and is representing a Baltimore woman in a similar predicament.

“These issues have been bubbling forever, but that Supreme Court decision really put them in the spotlight,” said Ogburn “And so we see litigation on these tax sale issues across the country.”

So why can’t Gaynor argue the same case in court?

There is an assortment of layers to many of these cases due to differing state laws and whether the excess money goes to investors or the government.

The family told the Investigative Team that fighting further in the courts is too costly.