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HOME > NEWS > PEPPERRELL POST ARCHIVES The following article is an archive of the Pepperrell Post. Please note that the information in it may have changed since the article was published. To read the most up-to-date articles, see the current issue of the Pepperrell Post
Resolving the mystery: who gets the tax bill? Anyone who has sold a house in Maine after April 1 is familiar with this scenario: You get a bill in the mail from the tax assessor for a house you no longer own. This is due to a state law that makes the owner of a house on April 1 responsible for paying the property tax bill for the full year — even if the house is sold. Normally during a property sale, the buyer and seller negotiate the responsibility for paying the remaining property taxes on a piece of property. But because of the state law, municipal tax assessors send property tax bills to the owner of record (the person who owned the property on April 1), regardless of who may be the current owner. This can cause confusion when the old owner receives the property tax bill and the new owner receives nothing. If a property tax bill goes unpaid (because the current owner is unaware of it), the bill becomes delinquent. At that point, the assessor can place a lien on both the property and the former owner. In order to reduce that confusion, Tax Assessor Dan Sanborn and his staff decided to find a way to make sure new owners received the correct tax bill, but without removing the previous owner as the owner of record, as required by law. After researching the city's property tax accounting software and working with a programmer, Sanborn and Tax Collector Stephanie Weaver found a way to accomplish the task. The Assessor's Department put the new system into place in time for the second half tax bills that went out earlier this year and so far, the system appears to be working well. It appears that this may prove to be our solution in avoiding confusion as to where the tax bill should go. We will continue to work towards improving our method of delivery for future tax bills. Please feel free to contact us and give us your input into this and any other matter regarding the assessing department. |
Services • Get a form • Pay city bills • Register your car • Register your snowmobile • Register your boat • Get a fishing license • Pay traffic violations • Search marriage/death archives Information • Find your ward • City Hall telephone numbers • More information  GIS MAPPING You can now research property lots through the city's Geographic Information System (GIS) maps. Just follow this link. Note: This will take you off the City of Saco website. 
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