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Originally Posted by DLJ1657
I may be missing your objection to how the taxes were prorated at closing, but from what I read, here are my thoughts. As a paralegal specializing in real estate transactions for over 24 years in another state, I will say that standard purchase/sale contracts call for the proration of taxes based on the last known amount. If I am reading your complaint right, that is how the title company calculated the closing expenses. If the seller used the property as homestead and his tax bill reflected that reduced amount, regardless of how you are going to occupy the property, last year's bill is what gets prorated at closing. The seller is not obligated to pay a prorated share on any future bill - it is based on the last amount billed to the seller. (My apologies if I misread your complaint!)
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According to the Lake County Tax Collector, the seller benefited in 2019 from the original owners (house is 3 years old) Homestead but my seller wasn't homesteading and that recalculated January 2020. If the Title company would have called or accessed their website (again, according to the tax collector) rather than use the 2019 bill, the correct calculation without homestead would have shown. The Tax Collector said it is typical, but wrong, for title companies to do this and this often rears its ugly head. The tax collector said he often has to explain this to realtors as well.