There's a pretty common belief that what you write or post on the Internet can always come back to haunt you. (This is usually noted about naked pictures of people.) But, it also seems to be true of governmental bureacracy.
When I owned my last house, I was a slacker. I didn't pay bills on time -- or at all -- I let things go to pot. I was basically a bad owner. I've improved since then. I paid off those bills and moved out. But they keep coming back to haunt me.
A year or two ago, the IRS started bugging me about a quitclaim that said I'd made a gift of my house when I gave it to my sister. I hadn't. I'd sold my half. But it wasn't recorded that way. So we went back and forth for quite a while until I finally got it straightened out and ended up paying $600 in taxes. This took place 4 years after I was out of that house.
Here we are, 6 1/2 years since I lived there. And it's haunting me again. We're trying to remortgage my current house. Up pops something about me still having a $1,500 lien. 6 1/2 years later! This mysterious lien hasn't turned up on credit reports before this, the town's tax collector says I don't owe anything. What the hell?
Was I that bad a person that I need to pay for these previous sins over and over and over again? Nothing depresses you quicker than the fear you will have to pay money you don't have.