So i closed on a duplex a week ago,that same day at closing the seller paid city tax and county tax, but now requesting that i pay back a prorated amount.
County tax run from jan-1st to dec-31st , they just send you one bill for the whole year which is around $200 year and you can’t pay partial…He paid the total due at closing day and now claims i owe him from mid march-2009 to dec-2009.
City tax run every six month, bill for january-june was due back in january…about $400 . He paid it at closing and now claiming i owe him from mid march until june.
So my question would be:Is he really suposeed to pay prorated???Even tho we already closed, am i suposed to pay him back what he alleged???
To make things complicated i did the stupidity to use same attorney,so basically same attorney is representing both and the attorney claims i owe the money.
Here in Texas, you pay 2008 taxes in January 2009. In this case, the tax he just paid is (I’m guessing here) for 2008.
since he owned the property for all of 2008, those are his taxes.
On the other hand, if he paid 2009 taxes, then it should properly be prorated to the date of closing.
I’d suggest you get a copy of the tax statement and see exactly what year was paid. I’d also check to see that they were, in fact, actually paid by checking with the tax assessors office. I’d also make sure that the taxes weren’t already prorated at closing (on the settlement statement or HUD-1)
This sounds perfectly normal to me. The seller paid all the taxes, you owe him back the prorated months that you will own the property.
This is done all the time in closing; usually there is a closing agent like a title company or escrow officer who does the proration. Or in your case an attorney. This is normal business practice.