Property Tax Foreclosures

Property Tax Foreclosures are becoming more and more common. The rise in number of property tax foreclosures indicates the slow economy where not only people cannot afford their mortgage payments, they cannot afford to pay their property taxes. Property tax foreclosures are as severe and as painful to deal with as mortgage foreclosures.

What are property tax foreclosures?

A property tax foreclosure is when a homeowner fails to pay his or her property taxes on his or her home. Defaulting on property taxes will result in property tax foreclosures.

What happens in a case of property tax foreclosure?

When a homeowner fails to pay the propery tax for the home, the state, county, or city whose property taxes are delinquent, acquires legal title to the property.

Property tax foreclosures take much longer compared to mortgage foreclosures. While a mortgage company will file a notice of default and start the foreclosure process just a few months after you fail to pay, the city, county or state will file for a property tax foreclosure a few years after the taxes become delinquent. Most of the time, property tax foreclosures don't commence until you have been delinquent in your property taxes for three years.

The first your that you do not pay your property tax, you will receive a delinquency notice stating how much you owe and have not paid. Each year that you are still delinquent, you will receive similar delinquency notices. After a certain number of years, such as three years, if the property taxes have not been paid, you will receive a foreclosure notice.

Even after the district attorney has filed to start the foreclosure process, you will have time to stop foreclosure. If you believe that your property should not be in foreclosure and that you have paid all the property taxes stated then you can also file a dispute and stop the foreclosure process.