On Wednesday Willa Mae Spencer turned 81-years-old and Gallia County, Ohio gave her a gift...a bill...with a price tag of $2,647.18.

"When they built the house for her, she moved in and they never sent her a bill," Spencer's daughter, Betty Mullins, said.

Back in 2004, Mullins says a group called Community Action built her mother a brand new home. But now it's five years later and she's never paid one cent of property taxes.

"She's up in age and didn't think about that," Mullins said. "When she didn't get a bill, it just never entered her mind to check on it or anything."

After Ms. Spencer's home was up and running, the next step would have been to file a building notice with the county just so they know it exists. But the problem was that the notice never got filed. So now the question becomes who's responsible?

"It was Community Action's responsibility to make sure the paper was filed," Mullins said.

"Technically, it falls back on the property owner," Gallia County Auditor, Larry Betz, said.

Betz says Spencer isn't alone, in fact he says there have been several cases of homes built by Community Action in the area where they never turned in building notices.
But, unfortunately, he says there's nothing he can do.

"It's one of the toughest parts of my job to have to do that," Betz said. "I don't like doing it, but I don't have a choice in it."

As for Mullins, she says she'll do whatever she needs to in order to make sure her mother has a home.

"We don't have a way to come up with money for her unless we take a loan out against our house," she said. "We've got to make sure she has a place to live in."

Eyewitness News contacted Community Action, however, they told us all questions needed to be directed to the county auditor.