Seller Won't Pay His Share of Property Tax
 

The closing company estimates the taxes based on the previous year and prorates for the closing settlement. Seller and Buyer sign a document that says if the actual taxes differ they will be re-prorated between the parties upon demand.

In my case the taxes were significantly higher than the estimate and the Seller owes me $2,000. I provided paperwork to my realtor, who forwarded to Seller's realtor who forwarded to Seller. I also contacted the Seller's ex- girlfriend and she spoke with him. However the Seller has not responded. It's been 9 months. Obviously he has no intention of reimbursing me for his share of the taxes.

The Seller is not a Florida resident but did buy another house in The Villages.

Just looking for opinions, advice, comments.

That is why God created escrow accounts.

This one is easy. The dispute took place in Florida. You take him to small claims, you will win. The collections (if he does not pay) is by a judgement at the courthouse, eventually you will get paid when his second TV home is sold. Small claims cost 317.00 in filing fees and the cost to have this server in his local state.

In Florida property taxes are paid in arrears, one year behind.

what a bummer

I would have been talking to an attorney months ago

Need to talk to a professional but taking the guy to small claims court sound like the best bet.

Considering that $ 2000 is probably at least a half years tax does the company handling the closing have some responsibility here?

:bigbow:

Sue him and reimburse for legal fees. The taxes even when you buy if they differ the greedy villages should automatically refund you .

Very true, so if the pro-rata went up $2,000 for the gap period..........it must be a huge house & large value. So $2k in the scheme of things is nothing.


The numbers don't reconcile.


Small Claims Court..............don't you have to go to their state, not file in Florida?? (Assuming you want to collect) :ho:

What was the response from the closing company when you brought this to their attention? You paid them to avoid problems like this. Based on your OP, I think it was the closing company who dropped the ball.

None of this should be verbal between buyer and seller.

In all our uses of Closing Agents/Title companies this could not have happened. Monies from all parties are to be in escrow before sale can happen.

When I bought my house 2 years ago, the taxes were deducted from the seller and given to me at that time. I was then responsible to pay the taxes when they became due. Closing was done thru Lin & Burnstin. Check your closing statements for tax payments.

Not at all. There are times when there is a gap between known taxes & the need to estimate. If the estimate made & there was a large increase or decrease.......an estimate error could happen. Estimates are disclosed and both parties sign off. Closing companies CYOA.


Like other posters have mentioned............escrow. Both parties signed off on not using an escrow. Whoops.

There has to be some material facts missing in this story. Property taxes are obviously estimated since they only come due at the end of the year. They are estimated based on mill levy times the property value.

Did you do a major improvement project such as a pool or room addition? That increases value which increases the tax.

I've never seen a document that calls for "re-proration" as you called it. Check your HUD-1 settlement statement and you will see a credit for the seller's portion of responsible taxes.

I did this type of work for many years as the owner of a title company. The normal process is that you use the prior years taxes as your basis for prorating the taxes. If there is a large change in the tax, more than 10% , the seller and buyer agree to recalculate the taxes when the bill is available. In this case we had a large increase in taxes this year, (wasn’t it a 25%increase) in Sumter county. I would say the seller owes his share of the increased amount.