So our County tax board has been sending their notices of property tax raises with a 30 day window to respond or "its too late". Only they have been mailing them to my tenant, not to the owner of the house!

Of course I would have no way of even knowing about them right. And she could care less. I only found out days before the deadline when she mentioned in passing she had mail to me, and I drove across town and picked it up.

What gets me is the County surely knows its not my house, because they did not apply the homeowners exemption on it right. Also I have been living at my residence in the same County over 30 years. Why do they suddenly not know where I live?

When I complained about this the response I got back was "It is the homeowners responsibility to know where their mail goes."

My mail? I know where my mail goes, this is your mail!

Anyway the County tax woman then emails me a 'snippet' of the title deed as proof with the tenants' address penciled in under "Send documents to".

I go back to my own documents and mine, which says "MASTER DOCUMENT", is blank in that spot! Who wrote that in? And if they did, why wasn't I even told about it.

Honestly, you feel as if they are deliberately doing it.

This is my first experience with a government entity where apparently you have nowhere to complain to at all. As I said earlier I had already protested the last tax increase and went in front of their board showing neighbors all paying less..... and they simply denied it.

Its hard not to get upset when you budget all year for taxes and they do things to you like this.

You know that you need to get the tax paperwork. When you got the one for your residence but didn't get the one for the rental it should set off an alarm.

We have a list of the properties that are not escrowed and make sure the list has all the tax paperwork when they start coming in.

We also have a fairly decent online site for the county. Personally I go in every once in a while to check that they have everything the way I want it.

Seems that new purchases and refinances always want to mail all papers to the residence. I use a PO box exclusively for the business. I have had a couple closers tell me they can't use that. Used to let them do what they wanted then I would go down to the county building and make the changes. Last couple I have done I refuse to let them mail to my house or the rental.

Now with the time frames they give you I admit we missed one for appeal last year. I got the tax bills and one caught my eye as crazy high. Turns out when it came out last year we flagged it and got distracted by shiny objects and then forgot it.

That's a mildly expensive learning experience.

I feel your frustration and anger. So sorry you have to deal with that!

On the Master Document: If that spot is blank, is there another area where it states the proper mailing address, and the blank is only if it is different than the printed one?

Have you taken that down to (politely) educate the tax woman?

Take her donuts or whatever you can do to help her warm up to you a little.

I find "sometimes" it helps to go in with the approach of: I know mistakes happen, & I'm not blaming you - but I need your help.

It does sound like there may be an individual there who is trying to purposely make your life difficult. If you could somehow figure out who the instigator is and try to "befriend" them. Not friends, but get them to see you are not a rich, greedy, landlord monster. But rather, if you can't afford to have rental property there, where will those "good people" who need housing go?

Good luck

When you go in make sure you remind them that your taxes pay their wages.

Our deeds all have a spot at the end of mailing address ... mainly for the tax bills but so that anyone can see the address of the owner. Unless it has something different, it will always go to the property. At closing, you should be alert for those type things.... or you should have a new title agent next time if they don't ask you that (along with YOU double checking the grantee line to be certain your name/entity is correct). Nothing "sneaky" was done here. It wasn't filled out at closing (that's why your copy was blank in that spot) and it got filled in prior to recording.

I can't speak to how things are done now, but when I first rental back in 1989 it was down in little old Hoopeston, Illinois. Back then you signed an affidavit of residency which allowed you to get either owner financing rates and/or let the tax collector know where to send the tax bills.

>>This is a pet peeve of mine - folks who own real estate not knowing/understanding the every day paperwork of property ownership. When and where taxes are sent (and actually what those taxes are for). >>

My pet peeve is when a government entity knows what is being done is wrong, but they do it anyway to 'punish' me because I didn't dot the Is.

Oh believe me I invest plenty of time worrying about all of this.

But you have to love an agency that faults you for not knowing where they send their own mail in advance!

But consider your peeve avenged, I paid dearly for not knowing that, lol.

But then again. Shouldn't the realtor have mentioned this? Something like "Hey bud, you may be new to this but I got decades of experience here doing these rental purchases. That's why you paid me 7%.

So let me tell you: You need to make sure this document on page 17 says Send the tax documents to your HOME address, not the rental. That way you know f they send you a 30 day reply-or-die tax increase. In fact, I did it for you."

Nope, they just took the 7%, and I paid them and for the mistake, too.

Bummer.

>>Nope, they just took the 7%, and I paid them and for the mistake, too.>>

Well, partial mistake. Part of the document saying where to mail the tax notices appears to have magically changed after it got to the County office.... as my copy doesn't match theirs.

Somebody seems to have updated their copy to make it look much more like I made a mistake, not them.

Even though my copy says "MASTER DOCUMENT"

Looks like my Master Document, doesn't match their document.

Well that sucks.

I should have had X-ray vision, and been able to see their document, in their office. Even though I didn't even know they were sending it.

Bummer again!

:(

I would guess that the line must have an address in there, The fact that it was left blank is bad on the realtor, the closing agent and you for not knowing.

The gov employee isn't going to take the time and effort to track down every mistake and contact the owner. By default I imagine it goes to the property address.