It seems they sent warnings for several years before seizing the property, all without any response. The local government claims there were programs she could h

It seems they sent warnings for several years before seizing the property, all without any response. The local government claims there were programs she could have used to pay off the debt over a period of a decade, in order to keep the property, or she could have sold it herself. She already wasn't living in it, so no eviction of an occupant occurred. Debt collection agencies are more common with private creditors & bills, or with unsecured debt. Typically, the entity engaging the agency gets only pennies on the dollar (they usually sell the debt, and the right to pursue it, to the agency). No point in doing that, in this case, since the entire value could be recovered. As I understand it, yes, this was sold at auction, and, as part of the seizure process, the property's mortgage was nullified—without which action, the (auction) sale price would not have covered the remaining balance on the mortgage.