Question about the property taxes?

[cereber0s]

Hi all, this is my first post. I have a ton of questions, this is a very stressful process, as you all know. First thing's first, I am in Florida, and our last payment was Nov 08, we have not received a NOD yet. I have not yet paid the property taxes due, and do not plan to. Ours were not bundled with our mortgage payment, but rather we usually paid those separately in April.

So having no intentions of staying in the home, what kind of wrench in the gears does this cause with the whole foreclosure process? Would not paying the taxes speed up the process a bit? Another question (please forgive me and don't laugh...this is my first house and I am a newbie), can I get arrested for not paying the prop taxes, kind of like not paying a fine? Any advice is appreciated!

[BK2008]

No arrests. Your mortgage company will ultimately pick up the prop taxes to get a clear title when the foreclosure takes place. Normally, the county would place a lien on the property after a period of time if you are delinquent with the taxes, but since the lender will transfer title well before then, that problem should be taken care of them.

[justbroke]

Worse than the tax lien, are tax certificates. You should probably try to get to teh property appraiser's website for your county to see if a tax certificate was issued. If it was issued, then the buyer can redeem the certificate for a deed in 2 years. There are all sorts of hoops they have to get through, but your hold could be acquired with little money from the tax certificate holder. Generally, though, astute (and on top of it) Mortgage companies and lien holders will pay the property tax before it gets this far. Just check the tax rolls for your county and see if they are in fact paid up. My lender paid mine on my property that I was surrendering in Bankruptcy.

Having wrote that, anyone would still need to go through the foreclosure property to actually seize your home. Don't worry about getting "arrested" for failure to pay property taxes. It's not criminal.