OT: Property Tax/Homestead Question

[ronpolk]

Hoping maybe some real estate agents or mortgage guys can help me out here. I bought a house in Madison in January 2017 (January 13th). I was told not to worry about filing homestead exemption for 2017. I even have a letter from the attorney that did the closing telling me not to file until between January 1st and April 30th 2018 (2018 is in bold and underlined). I got my tax bill last week and the tax bill does not have homestead. So, the taxes are about $1,400 more.

Was the attorney wrong and I should have filed homestead for 2017? Obviously, I plan to go talk to the Tax Assessor tomorrow but was hoping to have an idea on rather I got bad advice or not.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

You have to own it on Jan.1

is how I understand it.

 

[Shamoan]

Following year and you have like a year over purchase to file. They can do it retroactively if it's not too late.

 

[patdog]

This years taxes are based on Jan 1 2017. Apparently, whoever you bought from either didn’t live there or didn’t file himself. You can, and need to, file homestead for Jan 1 2018. Your attorney was right. Nothing you could have done to change this years taxes either way.

 

[ronpolk]

This years taxes are based on Jan 1 2017. Apparently, whoever you bought from either didn’t live there or didn’t file himself. You can, and need to, file homestead for Jan 1 2018. Your attorney was right. Nothing you could have done to change this years taxes either way.

This is what I’m afraid of. They lived here for sure. Just not sure why they wouldn’t file homestead. I’m hoping somehow Madison county screwed up and it can be fixed.

 

[Dogariffic]

Too late now but a question to always ask when buying a used home is if the current owners had homestead. If not ... when I represent buyers....I always ask the sellers to pay the difference between homestead and non homestead as part of the deal.... but yes you file in January 18 for yourself....

 

[patdog]

Sounds like he just didn’t file. In which case, you’re SOL. There’s always a chance the county screwed up somehow, but the odds aren’t good. You might ask the former owner if he ever filed homestead & see if he has a copy.

 

[Faustdog]

This is what I’m afraid of. They lived here for sure. Just not sure why they wouldn’t file homestead. I’m hoping somehow Madison county screwed up and it can be fixed.

Go back and check your purchase contract. I’m a broker, and my standard contract states they the seller will pay the difference in homestead taxes if homestead is not filed.

So unless someone strikes through it, it’s in there on my deals. I know of at least one other large metro Jackson agency who has the same kind of clause.

 

[ronpolk]

I actually did just go back and look through all the docs. There was a copy of the 2016 tax bill and it showed the former owner did have homestead. We also did have a document signed stating that they had homestead filed but if homestead was removed for any reason the former owner would owe us the difference.

Odd situation.

 

[goindhoo]

You could have a situation where your seller bought another house before january 1 2017, and decided to file homestead on that house for 2017 which would move the exemption off the house he sold you.