Lender Failed To Pay Property Taxes!
I need some advise on a current situation I am involved in. I have an escrow account with my current lender, but they used my balance to pay my neighbors property taxes. I have spent the last two weeks trying to correct the problem and I just found out I will be up for tax sale on Nov 5, 2004. I was reading the escrow disclosure I signed at closing and it states failure to pay taxes can result in "damages paid to homeowner". Do I have any legal recourse?
I don't know about legal recourse, but I do know you need to see your tax collector immediately! November 5 is too close to dilly dally. The tax collector can remove your house from the sale if you pay him/her off or if you go in and set up a payment plan. (perhaps not all tax collectors will give you this latter option)
Yes, your lender is responsible for making sure that the taxes are paid from your escrow to the correct PIN account. How do you know that the neighbor's taxes got paid instead?
Most lenders farm this service out to companies that just do this. With persistence they will straighten this out and pay the penalities associated as well.
John Carter is over-reacting a little. The redemption period after the tax sale in Illinois is something like two years. Make sure your lender fixes this before then.
Yeah, I guess I am. In California the right to redemption ends 5 p.m. the night before the auction.
Being a resident of McHenry County and being in this situation myself a couple years ago, I can tell you to be very diligent about getting it paid even if you have to pay it yourself and then submit the receipt to your mortgage company. We paid our neighbors taxes for 2 years before we were told of the mistake. It was actually a notice of forclosure for failure to pay back taxes for 2 years. Our pin numbers were one digit off and she was using our address to make matters more confusing. But we ended up having to refinance our house to pay the taxes. Our neighbor was paying her taxes and recieveing a refund check-- But according to William LeFew's office they are not responisble for any money lost they returned the money to the neighbor because her taxes were paid twice. The mortgage company was not cooperative and we lost out. Don't end up like us.
If you are in Cook County, the Tax sale is not until the sprint/summer time. Can't believe tax sale is November 5th.
While I know nothing about IL tax sale times or dates, I do know that if your taxes are not paid, the county & state will proceed with a tax sale.
They don't care who's supposed to pay taxes, only that they are paid.
And yes, you can sue your lender