Miracle of miracles!

Back in January, Mike and I got a bill for our property tax.  The bill was special in that we received it after the due date, due to the timing of our home purchase.  Almost immediately after getting the bill, I mailed off a check, putting it in the mail on January 28.

A few weeks later, the check still hadn’t cleared and we got a letter from our mortgage lender saying that property taxes were owing and that not paying the property tax bill violates the terms of our mortgage.  I called the local tax office and was told by some nutty lady that the county was one million payments behind, and that I should check back in mid-March.  You can probably imagine how well that went over…  Nonetheless, I called our lender and told them, and the very helpful person I spoke with put a note in the system (after laughing at how poorly run our county is– how do you get one million payments behind?!?).

Thinking that perhaps someone else would be able to provide some more info, I called the county again at the beginning of March.  This time I got someone who said that yes, they were behind in processing payments and that I should keep waiting and no, there’s no way they could look to see if they received the check I sent them.  They would process if if they got it, and if not, they wouldn’t (excellent logic).  I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that they weren’t behind by a million payments, but pretty far behind, and to just keep waiting.

Once a week, I checked the online banking statement to see if the check cleared, only to be disappointed (and increasingly frustrated).  Last week– the third week of March– I called AGAIN and got another woman.  After I yelled at her for a while, and after she was short with me back, she said I could just go to the county offices and write them a new check and that they could process that.  They’d even be nice enough to waive the late fee.  That set me off– I mailed the check with plenty of time, they’re behind in processing payments, so how on earth could it be my fault they didn’t get the check in time?!?!  I also voiced my frustration with having to take time off to call them constantly and to go down there, and explained that I think that amounts to an extra tax (because time is money!).

Since January, I’d gotten three other property tax bills (one paid with no problem, one not due yet, and one that was a total mystery) and I just wanted to get the whole thing worked out, so I decided to go to the office.  Neither the first nor the second person had any idea of what to do, so I finally got to talk to a supervisor.  I told him what the woman had told me, literally two hours before, and he said that was wrong, that I’d have to fill out a “lost check” fee form and turn in all sorts of documentation and wait an additional 6-8 weeks and that then they’d decide what sort of late fee to assess me.  I was steaming!!!  I finally got the guy to admit that there was a way someone could check to see if my check had arrived (they’re filed by date of receipt and by the parcel number) and he said he’d have someone do that and get back to me in 1-2 days.  That was last Wednesday.

When I hadn’t heard back from anyone on Monday, I called and got a very helpful worker (who actually suggested that I NEVER mail checks into them, and that I avoid using the credit card payment method which charges a fee equal to 2% of the bill you pay).  She said she’d talk to Brian, the guy I talked to when I went in, and call me back.  Well, it’s Thursday and I still haven’t gotten a call back!

The good thing, though, is that I checked the online bank statement today and lo and behold, the payment finally cleared.  And it only took two months for our revenue-starved County to get its act together enough to cash the check…