Aretha Franklin's home tips into foreclosure

DETROIT (Reuters Life!) - Is the Queen of Soul at risk of losing her Detroit house?

Grammy-winning singer and soul legend Aretha Franklin has been told that her $700,000 Detroit mansion faces foreclosure proceedings because of $162.14 in unpaid taxes dating back to 2005, a county official said.

But a publicist for Franklin said in a statement that the "issue has been resolved" without providing further detail.

Keith Owens, a spokesman for the Wayne County treasurer's office, said Franklin owed a total of $19,192 in back taxes and fees on the property through 2007.

Franklin, 65, must pay $445 by March 31 to avoid losing the slate-roofed brick mansion built in 1927, according to Owens.

A Detroit native, Franklin shot to fame in the 1960s with a string of hits including "Respect," "Chain of Fools" and "I Say a Little Prayer."

It is not the first time Franklin has run into tax trouble. In 1992 one of her properties in the posh Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills was tagged with a $225,618 tax lien because of a tax squabble.

Hit by rising unemployment and a slumping housing market, Detroit had the highest foreclosure rate in the United States in 2007.