Extortion... Part 2 the follow up....

Early this week we posted a blog called "Extortion". After our tour of the mindset of the Appraisal District, we went back to the School District to visit personally with the Assessor.

It was a short visit.  The Assessor saw the situation from our point of view,  and was intent upon seeing that things were made right.  Refreshing!

The solution was simple.  We had to go to the office of the attorney who had prepared and filed the unjust judgement against Ralph.

Remember that Ralph had sold the business and he was being taxed for five years prior to the judgement.  All his bills were paid for at that closing.  So he thought!

The problem was that according to the appraisal district , he was supposed to have gone to them and told them that he had sold the building with all the fixtures extra from the business.  Since he did not know to do that, he did not.  So years after the fact they went out and assessed taxes on the closed business.

The fix was to pay a $272. "Research " fee to that attorney in exchange for them preparing a release for the unjust judgement...  Paying for a mistake?

We did just that.  Having no other choice because the judgement had to be tended so we could sell our house.  We now are in possession of that release and the title company has filed it for record.

If we had time I would have contacted the media to be sure that everyone would know how this sort of thing could happen.  We will probably always think of it as extortion.  The sad truth was that it was the cheaper,faster, far less expensive route and will allow us to get the mess cleared up. NOW!  Heaven knows how it would have played out in court.

Sometimes the ends justify the means.  I just wonder how many people end up paying thousands in unfair, just plain wrong assessments! 

Let us all plan to let any business owners know that the appraisal district can come up with taxing after the buildings are sold and businesses are closed.  Unless, the owner goes to the taxing authority and tells them the business is closed, they might pick up the address five years later...

If we have made people aware that this practice does exist, the attorney fee we had to pay will be worth it!