Appalachian Title and Settlement Agency

Review: On September 17, 2013 my husband and I purchased a piece of property through T[redacted] Real Estate. On this day, at closing, we took a Cashier's Check that paid for the balance of the land and the remainder of the closing costs that were not paid by the seller (our pro-rated portion of the 2013 taxes included). As per our contract, "All taxes for the preceding years must be paid and 2013 taxes pro rated by the time of the closing." Therefore, we assumed this had been taken care of. On Dec. 7, we received an unpaid tax ticket for the property from the Treasurer's Office. It was sent to us from the previous owner and it showed our pro-rated portion was not paid. I called the realtor we dealt with and he informed me we had paid our portion, that the back taxes had been paid, and that this was the Treasurer's Office's fault. He brought me a copy of the paid back taxes and said he was working on the rest. On Dec. 30, I went to the Treasurer's Office and the entire ticket remains unpaid. On Jan. 6, 2014, I mailed a certified letter to Appalachian Title pointing out their mistake and requesting they fix this mistake. It has been 16 business days since they received this letter, and they have yet to correct their mistake. I was informed by Appalachian Title on Jan. 22 that they gave our pro-rated portion of the taxes to the previous land owner instead of to the Treasurer's Office. They told me they are working with the land owner to get this resolved. It is their mistake, yet they are unwilling to correct it. As of Jan. 1, the tax ticket is now in our names, so our names will be published in the newspaper as owing back taxes. All taxes for 2013 and previous years were supposed to have been paid the day after closing according to our Contract and Settlement Statement; therefore, they need to pay off the amount owed to the Treasurer's Office ($389.17 as of 1/22/14) immediately.Desired Settlement: This matter is entirely Appalachian Title's mistake, so they need to pay the amount of taxes owed on the property ($389.17 as of 1/22/14) in full. They then can try and receive reimbursement from the previous land owner instead of waiting on him to pay the taxes. They need to accept their mistake and make this right before our names are published publicly for not paying taxes.

Business

Response:

Revdex.com Case # [redacted].

ln response to the statement from Mrs. [redacted], Appalachian Title is going to

pay the taxes that were not paid at the time of closing and the late fees.

However, the remaining balance will need to be paid by the [redacted]'s as this is

the amount that they are to pay for the year.

We are not responsible for ensuring that the citizens of Grayson County, VA pay

their taxes, but we will be happy to correct the error to this end.

Settlement Agent

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

I am not satisfied with this response because per our Settlement Statement and Real Estate Contract, ALL 2013 taxes were to be pro-rated and paid in full at the time of closing. Our portion for the three months we owned this property in 2013 was paid at closing in our check made out to Appalachian Title. However, Appalachian Title failed to pay that amount to the Treasurer's Office and Ms. [redacted] informed me on January 22, 2014, that the seller received our money that was to pay our portion of the taxes. Furthermore, the previous owner of our property owed many years of back taxes on the property, and according to our Real Estate Contract, these back taxes as well as the 2013 taxes this person owed for the nine months he owned the property in 2013 were supposed to be paid at closing in full before the seller received his payment for the land. We fully understand that we owed for three months of the 2013 taxes, and we paid these taxes at closing, but Appalachian Title failed to forward our payment to the Treasurer's Office as they were supposed to. The full amount of taxes now owed on this property, including late fees, is Appalachian Title's responsibility. We also fully understand that it is not Appalachian Title's responsibility to ensure all citizens of Grayson County pay their taxes each year, but it is their responsibility to rectify the error they made pertaining to the 2013 taxes on this particular piece of property.

Regards,