I have come to realize in the past year that property rights, especially as the affect real estate, do not really exist any more in this country.  With property taxes, you effectively just “rent” your property.  Here in Vermont if you are late on paying your property taxes, I forgot the exact amount of time, but it is not much, the town can proceed initiate proceeds for a tax sale.  It doesn’t matter how long you have owned the property, you can lose it due to a period of ill fortune.

This is especially true when you combine property taxes with zoning laws.  Not only do zoning laws restrict what you can do on your own property, they often place requirements as to how much land you have to own in order to do it.  In my home town, some zoning regulations depend not only on what type of zone you are in, but where your property is located.  So in the example of losing your property due to inability to pay rent, I mean property taxes, if you own two acres of land and you live near the central village you could divide up the property and attempt to sell a portion to pay your taxes.  In another part of town, you would not be able to divide your property as the zoning laws say that 2 acres is the smallest size lot you can sell.  In other areas it might be even more.

And I won’t even get into the rights violation that is eminent domain.

Here is Yaron’s take on zoning laws: