How can an attorney help me if I have delinquent property taxes?

If you are behind on your property taxes, you are likely to face your original back tax bills, plus penalties and exorbitant interest.  If you continue to fail to pay your property taxes, your county can begin foreclosure proceedings against you.  You can face foreclosure for back property taxes, which means not coming up with a solution could result in you losing your home. 

A qualified, experienced tax attorney may be able to help you prevent foreclosure, so you should strongly consider hiring a property tax attorney.  If you contact an attorney early enough, he or she may be able to help you: 

• Work out an arrangement with the local tax office to make installment payments, work out some abatements, etc. 
• Help negotiate a property tax loan.  With more and more homeowners behind on property taxes in the current complex economic environment, more lenders are offering homeowners loans to help pay their property taxes, and these loans presumably cost less than the county’s interest and penalties.  A qualified attorney will be able to help you locate reputable property tax lenders, and negotiate a good rate on such a loan.

For an attorney to be able to help you, you must not wait too long.  Many of the options available to you are only possible if your home is not already at certain stages of foreclosure, and certainly before you have filed for bankruptcy.