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only publishing my interpretation of my situation. You should seek your
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I received my real estate property tax bills for the
three properties on Perdido Key that I have in foreclosure. None
of the three properties have gotten a foreclosure sale date yet
so all three are still in my name (lovely). Despite the horrible
real estate market down here, the property tax bills have
decreased only slightly (even though house prices have been cut
in half). For instance, on my big house, the real estate taxes
were $8,964 last year and $8,264 this year. That is only a
decrease of $700. Yet the house will not even sell for half
price. The other two properties, although much lower amounts,
are in similar situations - only minor adjustments to the tax
bill from the previous year.
Even though these three
properties are going to go back to the banks in foreclosure (as
I have been unable to find any buyers and I do not have enough
money to keep them afloat), I will still have to go to the tax
assessor's office and argue for lower taxes. After all, it will
be me who gets stuck with the tax bills when all of this
foreclosure mess is said and done (and if you think I won't,
let's wait and see).
For the two condos, my
property taxes were paid by the mortgage companies out of the
escrow account. Even though I have not been paying the mortgage
payments since November of last year (it has almost been a year
now), I think the mortgage company will still receive and pay
the tax bill for these two properties. They will probably just
add the amounts to my outstanding bills. The big house never had
property taxes included in the escrow account (much to my
surprise). I never paid last year's tax bill on the big house. I
do not intend to pay the bill this year either, but I will call
the assessor to see if we can get the assessment lowered.
In the meantime, I have
to go cut the grass again this afternoon before the storms from
Hurricane Faye roll in and before my neighbors report me to the
county for not maintaining my yard.
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