• Jim Boerner, 49, bought a mobile home in Mesa, Arizona, two years ago and learned it had been sold when its new owner knocked on his door.
  • Boerner, who is unable to work because of injuries he sustained while in the military, paid for the home in cash and applied for a Maricopa County program that reduces property taxes for people with fixed incomes and disabilities.
  • He thought he had been approved for the program, but later learned he wasn’t and his house was sold in a government auction over an unpaid $236 tax bill.
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An Air Force veteran in Arizona says his home was sold at a government auction because of an unpaid $236 tax bill.

Jim Boerner, 49, bought a mobile home in Mesa, Arizona, two years ago, according to the Arizona Republic. He learned it had been sold in June when its new owner knocked on his door.

Boerner, who is unable to work because of brain and spinal injuries that occurred during a training exercise in 1991 at Mississippi’s Keesler Air Force Base, paid for the home in cash and applied for a Maricopa County program that reduces property taxes for people with fixed incomes and disabilities.

He thought he had been approved for the program, but later learned he hadn’t been, and his house was sold in a government auction over an unpaid $236 tax bill.

"It's difficult. It's just difficult. I love my home. I love my neighbors. ... This was my nest egg, you know? That's why I paid cash for it. This is where I was going to retire. And now I don't have that assurance anymore," he told the Arizona Republic.

In Arizona, mobile homes are considered personal property and can be auctioned off as soon as tax payments are late, according to Newsweek. Single-family home owners have two years to pay owed taxes before properties are auctioned off.

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Boerner said that shortly after applying for the tax program, he received a postcard in the mail informing him he had been accepted.

But last year, a sheriff's deputy visited Boerner and told him his tax bill was late, which could lead to the mobile home being sold at an auction.

He told the Republic that he applied for the tax program again, and was again told he was accepted.

But the he sheriff's deputy returned to Boerner's home in June month, informing him he was again late on his tax payment.

In total, he owned $641, $405 of which was from 2017, Boerner said. Boerner paid the $405 bill, leaving his account with a $236 balance.

The outstanding balance led officials to sell his home in an auction on June 20 for $4,400. The buyer visited Boerner shortly after to ask him how long it would take him to move out.

Maricopa County is working to try to save Boerner's home, but fear there's nothing they can do because the home was sold legally.

"It's emotional. It's frustrating," Boerner told the Republic. "... It's maddening I could lose my home over $200."

INSIDER has contacted Boerner for comment.