For some of us, house shopping is more of a nightmare than figuring you'll deal with a mess like this one later, specially when you include the honeydew factor.
I had an index card file of all of the houses we looked at, with the faults of each rejection noted. I also had a three ring notebook for a rough inspection checklist on the houses we considered. We'd pick up the Sunday paper on Saturday night to chart the next day's course of action. Months & months & months of Sundays, I'd pack snacks for the three kids & we'd look at houses 'til after dark. That doesn't include the appointments we had during the week. At the point when the oldest, then age 7, said he'd kill himself if he had to look at another house, my ex figured building would be necessary. Shopping for a lot was a whole lot easier.
If we'd gotten stuck in this kind of property tax mess, it would have been put on my honeydew list & my ex would assign himself the responsibility to nag me about it until I had it fixed. You think I learned about this property tax stuff by choice? LOL "This bill doesn't look right." "Look into it", required research to provide answers.
People could also walk into something like this outta ignorance, figuring it would be simple to straighten out. What's a couple of phone calls when you've found the ideal location? Meanwhile, the broker is telling you, you need to pull the trigger or someone else is going to snap it up, right under your nose.
There was also a case where a local neighborhood was annexed 3 yrs. ago but, the county forgot to report it to the appraisal dist. About 500 families received tax bills for the 3 yrs. averaging about $1800 payable by Jan. 31 2008. I suspect some of this same irresponsibility is going on here.
You could be right. Know if that $1800 was just the county's tax? I live in a property tax he!! & that seems high to me.