Posted on 03/12/2025 11:34:57 AM PDT by Kevin in California
I just recently got notified by the tax collector telling me I'm delinquent on my property taxes in 2022 & 2023. First of all, I have the receipts (debit and cleared checks) that I did pay my property taxes. Had to order them from my bank as their online banking only goes back 18 months for downloading docs. When I receive them, my brother ( he co-owned the home) is gonna head down to the county office and stick these docs in their faces. The funny thing about this is never in 2022, 2023, or 2024 did I get notification that I was so-called delinquent. It was only 2 weeks ago that they notified me of this BS. Also, I sold my home this past September and NOT one issue with escrow.
Incompetence on display.
GFY Santa Clara County Tax Accessor
I had same problem. They lost my file.Most likely they lost your file. If done by u.s. mail...I send by certified-return receipt. If by computer, I make sure I have a print out that’s says that tax agency got email. If by fax,, get printout that says that fax was received.
Best wishes. If paid by check get copies of both sides of check to make sure the check was “negotiated”. If check is NOT “negotiated”, no payment was made. Negotiation information is on back of check. FYI
Gov’t workers...when they actually work cause more problems than when they are just being lazy.
“If you don’t pay for 3 years (in my state) you can lose the property to whoever has paid the taxes.”
“No. The lien holder can file for public auction with the property going to the highest bidder.”
Just for general information, I bought a piece of property in tax foreclosure for $762. It is next door to a house I bought. It’s an acre of developed land and had a dilapidated house on it (since removed). I looked it up on the county website and saw it was in tax foreclosure. I sent a letter to the state asking for a quote. I paid nothing but the back taxes. I paid the annual property taxes for about 3 years and then the state issued me a tax deed. As far as I know there was no auction for the property. A title search also showed there are no liens, mortgage or otherwise, on the property.
Unsolicited free advice:
Even though your brother is going to meet someone at the County personally, write a letter that describes the notice you received. This scares clerks to death, because they see that you are organized and they can’t just shine you on. Letter should identify the date, your parcel numbers, the owners, the amounts, etc., and the fact that you most certainly DID pay all the taxes referenced in the delinquency notice on a timely basis. Refer to, and
attach, copies of the notice, the proof and your cancelled checks. Write “Hand-delivered on (date)” on head of the letter. Make a place for “Received by:___, and “Date:______” on the foot of the letter. Have whomever your brother speaks with sign a copy that he will keep. Request a copy of some sort of your tax account with PAID IN FULL stamped on it with their treasurer’s stamp.
Telling the clerk: “Hi, I need your help. I received this tax delinquency notice for taxes that I know were paid on a timely basis, and I’m worried to death that some scammer is trying to cheat us out of our home. I wrote down the facts in this letter so I wouldn’t forget anything. After the clerk looks at the letter, ask, “Can you give me some sort of receipt that acknowledges that our account is paid in full?”
In my experience, asking bureaucrats to help you flatters them and they’ll fall all over themselves doing so. Start off angry or laying blame, and they’ll dig in their heels to show you who’s boss. Handing them the letter and proof before discussing much prevents them from saying crap their ego will not want to retract, even after they know you are right.
“They have auctions and people compete to pay your taxes and the county pays them interest. If you don’t pay for 3 years (in my state) you can lose the property to whoever has paid the taxes.”
No. They bid for the right to place a lien on the property.
If the property owner does not pay the taxes due they are paid out of the sales proceeds. The county then pays off the lien.
“As far as I know there was no auction for the property.”
Most likely there was an auction and nobody wanted the property enough to pay back taxes.
That’s not how it works here. If you are delinquent 1 year the town (not county in this state) places your property up for tax auction. Bidders come in and bid on the property. If they bid more than the tax liability the amount over the tax owed is placed in escrow for 1 year.
.Within that year the delinquent owner can redeem the property by paying the back taxes fees and penalties. If they do not redeem the property goes to the high bidder and any bid amount over the tax liability goes to the previous owner.
Progressive America on display. You don’t own your home. Its a partnership with bloated and corrupt government.
It’s not a partnership, it’s a perpetual lease to the government that if you don’t pay, you lose your home.
“That’s not how it works here. If you are delinquent 1 year the town (not county in this state) places your property up for tax auction.”
I don’t know where here is but one year is pretty quick. Florida is two years.
When do taxes become delinquent?
We have two payments a year. If you miss the two payments of the fiscal year you are delinquent. It’s a town by town thing, some towns are more lenient.
They were/are ground zero for Covid crazy. Besides the never ending mask mandates one of the more crazy edicts I remember, is if you left the county you were suppose to self isolate for 14 days. I am guessing the data entry clerk's glasses were fogged up when the payment was entered into the system..
They found out you are a Freeper...
“Most likely there was an auction and nobody wanted the property enough to pay back taxes.”
Maybe, but it’s hard to imagine people showing up for an auction to buy an acre of land and not willing to pay $762. Since there were no liens or mortgages on the property I think that would have been the starting bid. It’s currently assessed at $19,000. The structure on the property possibly could have been rehabbed; I had no interest in doing that.
“It’s currently assessed at $19,000.”
Taxes and demolishing the building could eat up most of that.
Newsome was making noises about shutting all the roads leaving the state around March 27, 2020. My wife and I were living in our Silicon Valley house at the time. On March 20, she grabbed the dog, threw a suitcase together, and hightailed it to our place in North Idaho. She’s only been back to California a handful of times since.
I got a coffee drink at Starbucks this afternoon. The young 20ish man helping me was wearing a mask. I guess he never heard that young people rarely catch it, and, if they do, it’s a mild cold with a 100% recovery rate. I can’t believe people want to go through life with that diaper on their face. I don’t think they will ever quit being paranoid.
That's what I thought until I went to Rodeo Beach in Marin County in the fall of 2020. I'm sitting unmasked on a park bench having a nice conversation with a gentleman about my age. Very cordial and interesting.
His wife came back and started hysterically shrieking at me. "Where's your mask? Don't you know there's a pandemic on? Where are you from? Are you stupid?"
It was a bright sunshine day with a stiff breeze off the Pacific Ocean. There was ZERO chance of snagging a wild virion and getting sick. Her husband (the guy I was talking to) tried to calm her down, but couldn't. She was getting even more wound up and going more berserk. So he finally took her by the arm and escorted her away. I hope he took her to the looney bin.
So that incident convinced me that Marin County was even worse than Santa Clara County.
LOL. Lots of crazy going around in deep blue areas. Even Florida had the crazy going for a month or so in the very early days of the pandemic. Santa Clara gets my nomination for the most crazy because of duration of crazy news reports.
“Santa Clara gets my nomination for the most crazy because of duration of crazy news reports.”
I’m with you on that. We split time between the Coeur d’Alene, ID area and Silicon Valley (well, I do — my won’t come back to California!). North Idaho was laid back and relaxed about the whole COVID affair while Santa Clara County was absolutely neurotic.
Results? Same per capita infections, hospitalizations, ICUs, and deaths. No difference.
I am in the midwest and we never had any overflowing hospitals. It was a bigger problem out west where many of metro areas have half of the usable hospital beds we have. That may have led to some of the hysteria on west coast.
“Taxes and demolishing the building could eat up most of that.”
Contractor dug hole, put house in hole, burned house, covered hole for $3000. I have about $3800 in the property. The property tax is less than $200 a year. In my opinion someone would have to be an idiot not to buy a cleared acre of land with water, power, and septic, on a decent road, with no liens, for that amount of money. That’s why I don’t believe there was an auction.
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