Am i responsible for deliquent taxes on a home recently purchased?
Answer:
On a home recently purchased, delinquent taxes stay with the property, and become the responsibility of the new owner. If they continue to stay unpaid, they will accumulate along with late fees and penalties, and it's possible, over time, you could lose your newly acquired property.
If they were not paid at closing, you should try to find out why they were not paid. Normally, the the contract of sale states that title of a property is transferred free and clear to the new owner, but that is not always the case. Anyone can pay delinquent taxes, the county or government entity doesn't care who pays them, although normally they are the responsibility of the seller prior to transferring title.
Check your closing statements and documents to see if the seller or title company state that taxes were paid, and then contact them to see if they still have the receipt. It's possible that the money paid towards delinquent taxes was somehow mistakenly applied to the wrong property. If you can't find a receipt, write down as much information as to how the payment was made: date, amount, approximate time of day, method of payment (cash, check, credit card) and the Tax Department will search their register records and begin an inquiry for you.
If the seller or title company overlooked paying the deliquent tax bill, or if they stated at closing that the taxes were paid, and they were not paid, you should contact an attorney to go over your rights and possible actions.
If your delinquent taxes are three years or more overdue, the Tax Department will begin to take action to force the sale of your property. It's possible they may grant a delay, in order to give you more time to straighten out whatever mistake was made. There are other ways they may be able to help or suggest help as well, but the Tax Department will only hold the current owner of the property liable for the taxes due. They will not take any action against the previous owner to recover delinquent taxes.
In Florida, the company that provided the seller's and your buyer's title insurance policy should have certified that the home was free of any such liens on the property.
As a result, they would be responsible for delinquent taxes, the taxes should have been deducted from the seller's proceeds at closing.
Your state might be different.
no you are not the seller is not you
Typically the taxes should have been paid before Title passed to you.
Check with the Lawyer who handled the transaction.
Good Luck!
Your closing agent should have caught this at closing and made sure that the title was clear. In most cases (in Washington), the seller would be responsible for the delinquent taxes.
The seller should be-- that said, the title company/escrow company should have taken care of that at closing-- any liens on the property should have been dealt with.
If the taxes came due after you closed, then you are liable for only the time that you owned the property.
Depends on how you purchased it, and what the contract you signed to purchase it says. We would need to know more to be precise for you.
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