Is the WV Sheriff office shady? Serious question (answered, they are not)

[HuumanCreed]

So my father in law who retired to WV 2 years ago got a letter today, the first letter about the issue.

Turn out they did not update their record that we purchased the property so they sent the tax bill to previous owner. $160 no big deal honestly, but the owner told them he paid his portion of the taxes until he no longer owned it but here is the contact for the new owner, they said 'ok thank you'. The office NEVER reach out to us to get the remaining tax paid. But since it was never paid, a lien was placed on it. The lien was then sold Nov 2021 in a government auction. Now we have until April 2023 to pay $3000( interest, cost of sale conducted by sheriff office) or else they will award the land to the person that won the auction.

This is basically blackmail or official LEGAL bribe. We get no notice of ANYTHING until now. So now I'm calling around trying to get this resolved, might even need a lawyer. I don't care if someone going to eat this cost, but its NOT going to be us.

Just ranting....thank you.

 

[raisins]

I'm sorry this happened.

We have a huge brain drain here in WV, so what happened could be malice or just an office horribly run (they were too lazy or disorganized to do the correct paperwork).

I'd get a lawyer and get it sorted out. It might be best to get a lawyer that doesn't live in the same area.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

Sounds more like incompetence or sloppy paperwork led to the property being sold for the taxes without them contacting you first. You have the grace period to pay the bill and retain the property. A phone call to a lawyer might be a good idea. Hopefully they will waive the cost of the sale and you just pay the back taxes since they should have contacted you. The sheriff's department was just doing what the Tax accessor at the courthouse told them to do. Good luck, and it stinks this happened.

 

[Exhumis]

I’d put it down to the sheriff being the one having to deliver the bad news, its not his/her fault it’s the tax assessors office fault.
In the county I live in VA disabled vets don’t have to pay property taxes if they file an exemption. Being a disabled vet I do so. I have to file it the first of the year. And every. single. year. like clockwork I get a bill in the mail at the end of the year for a years worth of property taxes I haven’t paid. And every. single. year. I have to play games with the county tax office proving to them I filed the exemption on the first of the year which includes date/time stamped emails, registered letter return slips, date stamped forms, etc. If it happens this year it’ll be my 5th year playing this fun game. Just chalk it up to incompetence, employee turn over and sun contractors not giving a crap about the job they do.

 

[krub6b]

If they can't prove that they served the current owner with the notice of lien, the lien should be null, I'm no lawyer, and I don't live in west virginia so my opinion isn't based on anything other than opinion.

"The sheriff will send you (the taxpayer), by certified mail, a notice of the delinquency along with the sale date no less than 30 days before the sale. The sheriff must also publish the notice in a newspaper or, if a newspaper isn't available, the sheriff will post the notice in a public place. (W. Va. Code § 11A-3-2, § 59-3-2)."

What Happens If I Don't Pay Property Taxes in West Virginia

If you fall behind in property taxes on your West Virginia home, you could eventually lose title to your home. Learn how to handle delinquent property taxes in WV.

www.nolo.com

This article confirms that your father should have been served notice, call a lawyer asap.

 

[ImThere]

IMHO worth what you paid for it.
You can pay a lawyer the $3k or the tax lien.

Did your closing agent hand you the paperwork to go file at the tax office? I guess if I was going to fight it I would start there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[HuumanCreed]

If they can't prove that they served the current owner with the notice of lien, the lien should be null, I'm no lawyer, and I don't live in west virginia so my opinion isn't based on anything other than opinion.

"The sheriff will send you (the taxpayer), by certified mail, a notice of the delinquency along with the sale date no less than 30 days before the sale. The sheriff must also publish the notice in a newspaper or, if a newspaper isn't available, the sheriff will post the notice in a public place. (W. Va. Code § 11A-3-2, § 59-3-2)."

What Happens If I Don't Pay Property Taxes in West Virginia

If you fall behind in property taxes on your West Virginia home, you could eventually lose title to your home. Learn how to handle delinquent property taxes in WV.

www.nolo.com

This article confirms that your father should have been served notice, call a lawyer asap.

That's really good info, thank you for that!

 

[krub6b]

You can pay a lawyer the $3k or the tax lien.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Theres truth to this, but a lawyer may be able to save you some money with a few quick phone calls and telling some local officials they need to fix their boo-boos before they get drug into court. Or he may tell you that you should pay the $3k and make sure you have the correct paperwork on file to avoid future problems. I'd call a lawyer and talk it over with them, typically they will point you to the cheapest option so that you aren't mad at them for cutting the tax bill in half and then charging you $3K for doing it.

 

[raisins]

If they can't prove that they served the current owner with the notice of lien, the lien should be null, I'm no lawyer, and I don't live in west virginia so my opinion isn't based on anything other than opinion.

"The sheriff will send you (the taxpayer), by certified mail, a notice of the delinquency along with the sale date no less than 30 days before the sale. The sheriff must also publish the notice in a newspaper or, if a newspaper isn't available, the sheriff will post the notice in a public place. (W. Va. Code § 11A-3-2, § 59-3-2)."

What Happens If I Don't Pay Property Taxes in West Virginia

If you fall behind in property taxes on your West Virginia home, you could eventually lose title to your home. Learn how to handle delinquent property taxes in WV.

www.nolo.com

This article confirms that your father should have been served notice, call a lawyer asap.

i can somewhat attest to this....i don't check it, but several family members have mentioned that so and so was losing their house to taxes (as seen in the newspaper) and once my brother called a friend and saved his friend's rear (he didn't know anything about it until the paper)

 

[HuumanCreed]

IMHO worth what you paid for it.
You can pay a lawyer the $3k or the tax lien.

Did your closing agent hand you the paperwork to go file at the tax office? I guess if I was going to fight it I would start there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agree with you on that so I called the closing agent. He bought it from a family friend, was ready to walk to city hall with a hand written note for a deed then hand the guy cash once it was done. Glad we pressured him to go use a title company. Living in Maryland, I'm still not used to seeing him hand a guy some cash and got handed an AR-15 back and walk away at a WV yard sale. Wild....

Updates: turn out the property is actually 2 parcels. The title company only escrow closing tax payment for the parcel with an actual address, not the one attached to it. I'm glad we got owner title insurance too. Now its all about hot potatoes with who going to pay.

 

[RSnyder]

Had the same thing happen to me. I had already paid the tax for that year so thought I was good. Some lady called out of the blue to tell me property was to be auctioned at sheriff tax sale. Thought it was a hoax. Correction cost me 1000$. I also thought it was total BS that I never received any notice. This also in WV. Good luck with it.