Is this a scam

[brandy]

Just got a letter that says its from Florida department of Revenue Jim Zingale Executive Director at 5050 W Tennessee St Tallahasse Florida 32399 phone 850 488 9750

The letter says they have had an application to register my property for sales tax as a rental property and it is being processed and that the certificate (DR-11N) will be mailed to my broker/management company Blackhawk Unlimited Inc

I have no idea who Black hawk are

I live in the UK so how can I find out if this is real and if it isnt who do I tell help !!!!

[JanetandCarol]

Hi Brandy, Blackhawk is the new name for "Empty Nests" that take care of property when the owners are not living there. One of the employees bought it from Hometown Property Management (Empty Nests). Janet

[redwitch]

If you rent out your property, you probably should apply for the sales tax license -- protects you in the long run. Many rental properties here do not pay the sales tax even though they technically should (some because they don't rent long enough to qualify, some because they don't know they should register, some because it's okay as long as you don't get caught type thing.

So, doesn't sound like a scam in your case, just a change in property managers.

[steigers]

I received the same letter and I'm pretty sure Black Hawk is the name of the company that goes through Century 21. Are you renting your property? It is not a scam...Have a great day...

[MelZ]

Black Hawk is the company that bought Hometown Property Management, I got the same letter since I rent using them.

[Bryan]

It is not a scam but it may be an unnecessary or misdirected letter. It appears some old files on home ownership/rental were not purged at some point and now the Dept. of Revenue is sending renewal notices to numerous people who either no longer own or no longer rent out their property. It may be (certainly not confirmed that this is true) that Blackhawk just asked for renewal of rental tax certificate for all properties in their records before checking to see if they still managed those properties. Anyway, it is not a scam but if you don't own or don't rent out what you own in TV, you can pretty much ignore the letter. If you want to feel lots better about it, call or write the Dept. of Revenue about it. Writing is better because then you will have it documented in writing that you questioned a mistake. BTW, was the letter properly addressed to you by name or was it some other name? There have been cases of these letters being sent to people who own/rent property but no longer live at the address to which the letter was sent. That is nothing more than a simple addressing error on the part of the Dept of Revenue or whomever failed to file a Change of Address with them.

[brandy]

Thank you all for your input. I must admit i was worried that someone had used my address in TV for some kind of scam. We did rent out our property through the villages sometime ago. We are due to get to TV soon from the UK so i will try and get in touch with the department of revenue when I get there