Suffolk Property Tax Late Fee (house, taxi, income)

[nyc_sport]

My dog ate my tax bill, so I was a few days late paying my May 31 property tax bill. For those three days, I just got a late fee and interest invoice for $500+. Anyone have any success talking/complaining your way out of the late fee/interest?

[alexei27]

My neighbor just had this happen. Its not only the late fee...but they hit you with an interest charge prorated back to February! Nice.

They called this number...(631) 852-1500 but the county website has all kinds of explanations about what you'll pay if your late. I suppose if you could show some sort of hardship that made it impossible to pay by May 31st???....I've learned with Suffolk County you can have varying degrees of success depending on who is working that day.

[TJLamb0518]

And to be honest, "My dog ate my tax bill" won't cut it. Not to be "that guy", but the tax dates haven't really changed in....well, forever, have they? So you kida knew they were due the end of May, bill or no bill.

[nyc_sport]

I have no idea if the tax due dates have changed in forever as I have owned a house for 3 years, and there are at least 12 different days throughout the year that I owe some sort of property or income tax to some taxing authority. None of the others have anything like this penalty and retroactive interest.

I am not saying I have a reasonable excuse (hence, the dog ate my homework reference). So, I have no issue with someone charging a late fee and/or interest, but charging 10% for a handful of days probably would be illegal if done by a private company. I assume this happens with some frequency, and just wondering if people just suck it up and write the check.