More than 300 Lowndes County mortgage holders have received tax bills since Friday. The only problem? They aren’t the ones on the hook for paying the bill.
Lowndes County Tax Assessor Greg Andrews told The Dispatch his office has received calls from 300 mortgage holders in the area since Friday when he sent out tax bills.
Home loan — mortgage — payments typically include principal and interest on the loan itself, plus payments toward insurance and property taxes. The portion of the payment made to property taxes is held in escrow either by the lender or a third party and paid to the tax office when due.
Andrews said the companies holding the property tax money in escrow typically request an amount due from his office prior to the time he mails property tax bills.
At least three out of the 100 mortgage companies servicing the area failed to submit all of their requests, Andrews said, resulting in property tax bills being mailed to homeowners instead of being serviced by the company holding the money in escrow.
“What I would like to see happen is if you received a tax notice from Lowndes County and you have a mortgage, please forward that bill to your mortgage company with your loan number on it,” Andrews said.
Oktibbeha County Tax Assessor and Collector Allen Morgan said his office is unaware of any issues with homeowners with a mortgage receiving undue tax statements.
Andrews said he isn’t sure why the companies never sent out the statements, but it most likely is a clerical error.
Although the requests for bills were not submitted by the time the tax office sent out statements, Andrews said he expects the situation to have solved itself by the end of December, just one month before the property taxes are due on Feb. 1.
Property owners who normally pay property tax directly to the tax assessor’s office should do that as usual.
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