1 year ago we sold our home and paid off our mortgage at closing. Our mortgage company was never at any point with Countrywide. Prior to closing, our mortgage company advised us they were paying our final 2005 property tax bill which was due around the same time as closing. Just prior to closing, our title company, realtor, and attorney all checked with the county and verified our taxes were paid in full for 2005.
A week or so later, we received a letter from our mortgage company showing our loan was "paid in full". A week later we received another letter from our mortgage company stating they DID NOT pay our final 2005 tax bill from escrow and that we would need to pay any unpaid taxes from that year. They also sent us a small refund check from our remaining escrow balance.
We immediately contacted everyone involved (our mortgage company, closing attorney, realtor, title company) who all advised A) According to the county, we were paid up prior to closing, and B) Even if there was an unpaid balance, you could not have closed on your home until all prior year taxes had been paid.
At this point, we were very confused. How could everyone be stating we paid our taxes and our mortgage company was saying they did not pay them out of escrow? This went on for days which led to weeks of back and forth by email and phone with all parties involved. We were still believing our mortgage company had paid our taxes but somehow screwed up the accounting of our escrow.
Finally, the county was also confirming that our 2005 taxes were paid in full, but they could not say by whom. This continued on for a couple of months until I reached the top with both the Assessors and Treasurers office of the county and I was advised that our taxes may have been paid by someone other than us or our mortgage company in error! I wasn't getting much more info from them than this but I continued to request they give me some contact information of the person or company who erroneously paid our taxes so we could contact them, advise them of the error, and fix this issue so it didn't "linger" and come back to haunt us.
The County advised they could not give me anymore information so I then requested that they (County) call or send a notice to the person who paid our taxes and advise them what had happened... They couldn't do this either (nice example of our local government at work). Basically, the County told me there was absolutely nothing I could do, my taxes had been paid by someone other than me, other than my mortgage company, and I was "free and clear".
Of course we thought this was ridiculous and were very concerned that this would at some point come back to haunt us. I couldn't understand how we could not be responsible for our taxes, just let us clear up this mess up now, pay it, and be done! I made a couple more follow up calls to the County just to see if anyone else could help us and I was continually told they would not release the information of the "payor" and our taxes were paid, our home mortgage was closed, and we could not make payments on property we no longer own.
My wife and I spent countless numbers of hours working on a resolution for this. We are not the type of people who looked at this as a "good thing" as described by our title company, realtor, and the County. We saw this as a big mistake and something we wanted to fix now, not later. We felt we did everything we possibly could aside from hiring an attorney but why should we pay and attorney for something we didn't do wrong and based on the County telling us to leave it alone - it's taken care of.
Now, a year later, we just received a certified letter from Countrywide (again, not our mortgage company) stating they erroneously paid our taxes in excess of $5,000.00 last year and are demanding payment. I called Countrywide and asked them how this could possibly happen and they advised this "happens all the time, they don't know how." I basically told Countrywide their "mistake" had put us through hell and we tried to do everything to pay this last year. Any money I was willing to pay back when this happened has gone back into another home, and that ship has sailed.
It's my belief that if anything they should just go away, they owe us that much for all the time we put into making this right and if there is not penalty for them making mistakes on other peoples tax accounts, then what is the incentive for them to change their procedures and efficiency?
We are very upset at this entire situation and specifically Countrywide for causing this mess. Countrywide says they will continue to send us weekly certified letters demanding payment. Any advice?
Joe
Chicago, Illinois
U.S.A.
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