What went wrong when woman's 'new' home was torn down?

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- In a little green house on Wiggins Street in east Houston, Laxmi Nagaraj saw her future. Sure, she knew the place needed work. She bought the fixer-upper at the monthly Harris County tax sale auction earlier this year, planning to renovate.

"Remodeling and all those kinds of dreams I had," Nagaraj said. "All gone just like that."

She never got the chance. The city of Houston demolished Nagaraj's house after she paid for it fair and square.

She saved her substitute teaching salary for six years to afford the property, paying $61,000 cash.

"So many people live paycheck to paycheck and ... it is their lifetime savings," Laxmi said. "You people are ignorant about the dreams that common people have."

We first introduced you to Nagaraj and her story last spring, when she contacted Eyewitness News upset and confused that her house was gone. We started asking questions.

Here's what we now know happened: Nagaraj bid on and won the property at the county tax sale auction on Feb. 7. Two weeks later, before she moved in, the city tore it down. Nagaraj says no one reached out to her directly. She found out from her new neighbors.

"I said, what happened to the house that was here? Um, demolished."

We discovered that little green house had been on the city's list of homes to be demolished for nearly two years, since April 2021.

"When someone has set demolishing orders, they should keep a time limit for everything," Laxmi said.

We asked the city why the house wasn't demolished sooner. A spokesperson told us, "The resources were not available to demolish the building at the time."

We traded several emails with city representatives, but they declined our numerous requests for an interview.

But how was someone able to bid on and buy a home that was set to be torn down?

Harris County along with the Precinct 2 Constable's office organizes the tax sale auctions.

"Obviously something happened," Constable Jerry Garcia with Precinct 2 told us. "Somebody dropped the ball. Let's just admit it."

Garcia says he's not aware of anyone checking auction properties against the list of addresses ordered for demo and that should change.

"Let's sit down, let's figure it out so that somebody else doesn't go through what this poor lady had to endure," said Garcia, noting a conversation between the city, the county, and Precinct 2 needs to happen.

Since Laxmi's home was demolished 10 months ago, Garcia says he hasn't been a part of a conversation like that.

Buyers: do your homework. If you're thinking about bidding on a foreclosed property at the tax sale, know you can pay title search companies to help you research the property.

"A title search would have shown that the city had filed a notice to repair or demolish," said Richard Cinta, who owns his own title company and frequents these auctions.

Once you're the high bidder, Cinta points out, "There are no warrantees, no guarantees, no money back, no refunds."

Three months after our first story aired, the county reimbursed Nagaraj her $61,000 -- a relief for the teacher who wasn't sure if she'd ever see her life savings again.

But, it's not just about the money, she told ABC13. Nagaraj sees the American dream differently now.

"What happened to me, that cannot be changed. But I don't want someone else to go through what happened to me," Nagaraj said.

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