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If the woman was old enough to receive a tax break, she had to show not only her age, but near povertly level income for the benefit. Some of the elderly I know are only concerned about getting thru the day without a crisis. Someone elderly selling their home probably has far more on their minds than any of us can even begin to comprehend. We don't know if the seller was on medication, going into a nursing home or a hospice nursing center.
Again, the previous homeowner does not provide the tax figures to the closing agent. Nor does the agent or the mortgage company. Only the taxing authority releases that information. Sure sounds like this one didn't flag it was a reduced rate.
As for someone noticing it, in a stable world, yes. However, real estate taxes have been all over the map in the mortgage crisis. Some have lost over 50% of their value and their taxes have been reduced accordingly. Others are stuck in counties that will only review assessments every 5 years.
The only consistency is there is no consistency in real estate taxes.
This is GREAT info to know. I think the seller I'm buying from also has some exemptions that may not be valid for me. I'll check into it. Thank you all for sharing.
If the woman was old enough to receive a tax break, she had to show not only her age, but near povertly level income for the benefit. Some of the elderly I know are only concerned about getting thru the day without a crisis. Someone elderly selling their home probably has far more on their minds than any of us can even begin to comprehend.
All home buyers should do their own research on property taxes. I absolutely agree with that statement.
However, I think your first sentence there must be location-specific. In Texas, anybody over 65 is eligible for an additional homestead exemption.
WOW same thing happen to me but - The bank kept paying the wrong amount for 3yrs and rack up a bill of $14,000 in an shortage amount. so my payment went up BADLY -- Key to this is - The system gave the wrong amount and - now I am stuck paying a high dollar amount because of the software - after tons of phone calls and so many people -- You can write a letter to extend the amount owed for 36 mths. -- So how can we get the bank to eat the error because -- if I made the error they would of suck all my blood out as payment ....... WE NEED A Lawyer to fight this and win (Class action)-- This is happening way too many time. This is a way to get people into loans at there max amount... This is fraud at the end of the day.
I purchased a condo in April of 2010. I talked at length with my loan officer about my concerns with getting screwed on taxes like my friend did with her property. The loan officer even spoke to my friend on the phone to find out what happened with her property taxes to see if he could help fix it. He assured me over and over that this would not happen to me. He said my taxes would go up the following year, but it would only add $50 to $100 to my monthly payment.
In December of 2010 I told my loan officer it looked like my escrow was short by $1000. He did nothing about it.
Fast forward to July of 2011 I get a notice saying my escrow is several thousands dollars short!!!!
The bank either made a "mistake" or committed "fraud" because they based my property taxes on $200 a year when it should have been $2000 - the exact figure was $1975 for the 2009 taxes for the previous owner. The bank is now claiming they based it on a senior citizen discounted tax rate because at one time a senior had owned it, but it was not owned by a senior when I bought it and there was no way the taxes were ever $200 no matter if it was a senior.
I should have been paying $160 a month for taxes - not $16 a month - which I had no idea was happening because I discussed multiple times that I was very concerned about getting screwed on taxes and was assured the bank wouldn't do that to me.
The bank is now telling me that I have to pay an additional $300 a month to make up for this escrow shortage. They also said that I couldn't really afford to do that on my salary - duh!
I hired a real estate lawyer and she was there at closing. She never said anything to me about the $16 a month in taxes which I didn't notice either, but that's the point of me hiring a lawyer - isn't it?
Do I have any legal rights here - either against the bank or my lawyer???
In addition, my loan officer tried to cover all this up by telling me that my taxes had gone up to $2900 and that's why I had to pay more money. I called the treasurer and that's not true. They are still $1975 a year and they won't know how much the taxes are for 2012 until January 2012. So far, they have not gone up!
All of this seems dishonest and my lawyer didn't do crap to protect me.
Any advice???
Thank you all for your help.
Don't buy a condo. They are one step above timeshares, IMO.
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