House taxes

Hi everyone!

Hope someone can clarify something for me. When we bought our house in Oct 2017, the prev owner had 3 different exemptions that made the taxes a little over 5k. (We should be that lucky! Lol) anyway we know the true taxes are close to 9k. The tax cycle is December and May. . Of course we get a large escrow check back and then a few months later that letter stating we were short 1500.00. I sent back 2500.00. So now obviously it’s over (I even confirmed it with the bank) Now DH is flipping a lid stating the tax office told him that we would get billed for back taxes that we weren’t entitiled to?? (The differences) Wouldn’t they take this money at closing and straighten it out then? he thinks that the bank is going to get a separate bill. And we’re going to have to pay up. (They also told him when our star check comes into send it to escrow or not we’ll get taxed??)

Sorry so long. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks! .

Re: House taxes

Your post confuses me, but I'll try to answer what I can...

It doesn't matter what the old owner "paid." Your taxes are your taxes and when you closed last October, you would have paid whatever the actual taxes are, regardless of any exemptions the previous owner had.

I'm not sure how you got an escrow check back already. Escrow analyses are typically run once a year. Considering you haven't even owned the house for a year yet, they should not have done any reconciling since it was JUST done when you closed. Your escrow also should not have been over much, if anything. Maybe it was a bank error?

If your taxes (state? local? both?) are being paid out of your escrow, you should never get a BILL for taxes. All tax bills go straight to your mortgage holder, who pays the taxes. You will get RECEIPTS for paid taxes (not bills).

When you sent back in $2,500, did you tell your mortgage company what to apply the payment towards? Otherwise, it just goes as another mortgage payment, and will get applied as such (principle, interest, escrow).

Your husband shouldn't deal with the tax office since it's your mortgage company that's paying your taxes. But either way, there should not be any "unpaid taxes" since your mortgage company pays those out of your escrow account. If there's not enough in your escrow account, that's an error on their part and they would have contacted you so they could pay your taxes. They don't just ignore tax bills.

You need to figure out what's going on with your mortgage company, not the tax office. The tax offices cannot see what's in your escrow, so asking them questions is not going to get you answers based on your actual situation.

Re: House taxes

Since you said your "tax cycle" is December/May, I am assuming you live in Suffolk County.

The Town will go back and relevy the taxes for the exemption you weren't entitled to. If that happens, it will appear as a relevy line on your tax bill. You won't receive a completely separate bill - it will be added to your tax bill.

This is not something that is adjusted at closing, because the tax receiver isn't a party to the closing.

Say, you bought the house October 31, 2017. You would be entitled to the exemptions that appeared on the 2016/17 tax bill (period 12/1/16-11/30/17). You would be entitled to the exemption for the full tax year - not just the period of time you owned the home.

You would NOT be entitled to the exemption that appears on the 2017/18 tax bill (12/1/17-11/30/18). If there was an exemption on the 2017/18 tax bill, the Town can correct it on the 2018/19 tax bill (12/1/18-11/30/19) by indicating the correction as a line-item on the tax bill.

Re: House taxes