Landlord hasn’t paid property tax

[Esmom]

What is the name of your state? Tennesee

My daughter is in year two leasing a freestanding condo. She has no direct contact with landlord, instead paying to a real estate management company. Her agent is flighty. Today, she came home to a notice on the door from a Davidson county sheriff that property taxes have not been paid and an auction notice will go up tomorrow. She called the sheriff and he would only say that they had no record of the property tax being paid in 2017, the year the house was finished. Her calls to the property manager have been ignored. The landlord has never lived in the house but gets mail there often. She does not know where he lives.

Sorry for such a long post. My daughter is in a panic. Will she be forced out? Should she find a new place ASAP? It will be a hardship and expensive to move and she loves the place. I live 7 hours away. How much time does she have? If a tax notice came to her mailbox in his name, is she culpable for anything? She has complained several times that she doesn’t want his mail.

 

[bcr229]

This link is for a different county but the tax redemption process is the same statewide.
https://www.shelbycountytrustee.com/163/Right-of-Redemption
If taxes have been unpaid since 2017 then it looks like the current owner has a year to redeem the property after the tax sale. So, your daughter shouldn't worry that she'll be put out on the street next week, and she does need to keep paying rent.

If you want to keep an eye on whether the current owner eventually pays the back taxes, you can look it up on the web site for Davidson County at
https://nashville-tn.mygovonline.com/mod.php?mod=propertytax&mode=public_lookup

 

[FarmerJ]

Why is she accepting mail in the landlords name ? AND what address does the county bill property taxes to ? It is public information you can look up or even call and ask for. AS to LLs mail when it is sent there who collects it ? If it was me Im pretty sure I would have refused the LLs mail and told the post office the LL doesn't live at the listed address.
she can keep monitoring the property tax web site for changes and make plans based on the chance that she may have to move sooner , so she should first start saving money for new deposit and moving cost money. She should make copies of her lease now and store them somewhere else like at a friends of even your house. If by chance the LL settles the taxes your daughter needs to understand that things go wrong in other peoples lives and that includes getting behind on bills.

 

[Esmom]

Why is she accepting mail in the landlords name ? AND what address does the county bill property taxes to ? It is public information you can look up or even call and ask for. AS to LLs mail when it is sent there who collects it ? If it was me Im pretty sure I would have refused the LLs mail and told the post office the LL doesn't live at the listed address.
she can keep monitoring the property tax web site for changes and make plans based on the chance that she may have to move sooner , so she should first start saving money for new deposit and moving cost money. She should make copies of her lease now and store them somewhere else like at a friends of even your house. If by chance the LL settles the taxes your daughter needs to understand that things go wrong in other peoples lives and that includes getting behind on bills.

My daughter has lived there for 18 months. She has marked mail wrong address, return to sender. She has complained repeatedly to the property manager and when my daughter became alarmed at some official looking mail, the pm had her put the mail in a grocery bag and leave it on the porch for the landlord to pick up. I’m unclear from your response what my daughter should have done since the property manager and the landlords knew of the problem. Because the tax situation has moved to auction, I’m having a hard time accessing tax info but will continue to hunt it down.
My daughter has no reason to trust either the property manager or the landlord and is assessing her next action. Her lease says that the property manager is responsible for all fees and taxes and that failure to discharge those duties allows the tenant to be released from lease. My daughter has to travel one week out of the month, is facing some medical challenges but has started to plan her next move. Your suggestion to copy lease and store offsite is welcome. BTW, the landlords are both medical doctors with specialties. They apparently paid cash for home. I hope the situation gets resolved soon.

 

[bcr229]

If your daughter is 18 months into a 24 month lease and she's not comfortable with the owner or property manager's performance to date, then she should plan to move when the lease is up. She should make sure that she follows the requirements for notice that she's moving out.

Since the property management company is rather disorganized I'd also suggest that she do both a photo and a video walk-through of the home after she has moved everything out but before she hands over the keys, just in case the management company plays games with returning the security deposit.

 

[Esmom]

If your daughter is 18 months into a 24 month lease and she's not comfortable with the owner or property manager's performance to date, then she should plan to move when the lease is up. She should make sure that she follows the requirements for notice that she's moving out.

Since the property management company is rather disorganized I'd also suggest that she do both a photo and a video walk-through of the home after she has moved everything out but before she hands over the keys, just in case the management company plays games with returning the security deposit.

She signed a one year lease, then was offered another year. The manager has never performed a walk through despite efforts on my daughter’s part to schedule it. Yep, disorganized is one word for this. Thank you for the suggestion to take photos and a video to document the condition of the condo.