Good grief - I received a letter from our county treasurer's office yesterday that our property taxes that were due 11/30/16 are delinquent. Just a typed out letter stating this, with the amount, penalty and interest and a "taxpayer" number. No reference to which property it is, or if it's both. It was after dinner when we picked up our mail, and evening by the time I opened this last night. WTH?! I owe almost $1100. How is that possible, when I was under the impression all the property taxes got paid, even the ones coming due in November (it was October when we closed on the properties)? My first thought is it has to be related to our land, because we own that free and clear and will be billed and be paying the taxes directly, ourselves. But the amount seemed way too high, especially if it was only for 1/2 a year. From the very vague letter, I had no idea even what tax period this is for.
I dug out our paperwork on the land. Can't be that, because the taxes on that are about $860 for a year and according to my paperwork we are paid up on that for a whole year. Nothing due until November of 2017 (and now I remember the escrow lady telling us that). But, my taxes on the house are supposed to be taken care of through the mortgage company.
So, I tossed and turned on it all night. Got up this morning and looked at my paperwork on the house. At closing almost $1100 was included in what we paid for property taxes due. I logged into my mortgage account online and looked at the escrow balance. It was over $2000 now. I looked at the transaction history and in October it shows a deposit of almost $1100 (and then my monthly payments so far), but no money getting paid out for the taxes. Good grief!
While still online I see a "chat with a representative" so I did that and explained what I think is going on. She said she will report it to their tax department and asked me to email a copy of the delinquency letter I received. I ran it through my scanner and got that emailed off right quick. I'm just glad it's not having to come out of my pocket. I didn't want my savings I'm getting built up to have to take a hit like that!
Hopefully they take care of the entire bill ASAP and eat the cost of the penalty, as well they should! That kind of stuff always makes me toss and turn as well. Ugh!
ReplyDeleteSounds like someone dropped the ball at closing. The taxes definitely should have been handled then. We closed on our home in November, and all taxes and insurance were paid at closing. Hope you get it figured out and aren't responsible for any penalties!
ReplyDeleteSome people are plain stupid to handle their jobs properly. I can feel your frustration. Hope, it will be sorted out soon enough.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like escrow/title did their job properly at closing. They withheld the funds for the taxes due in November and the money was sent to the mortgage company. But, for whatever reason the mortgage company didn't pay it. I even found one of my closing docs that is a disclosure statement of what the next 12 months of payments to mortgage escrow will be and what will be disbursed. Shows right on it a beginning balance of $1120 and then on 11/1 the payment was supposed to be made. Hopefully they will take care of quickly.
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