Unpaid Tax Notices in AG

09/14/2017 11:00am

At 9:51am This morning the board of directors were notified the Lancaster County Tax Assessors Office posted signs on the property which advised the Almond Glen HOA had not paid their taxes. I checked the county website and verified the 2016 taxes were not paid (according to their records). The taxes for 2016 are about $650.00. The address posted on the sign refers to the general common area address for the Almond Glen Owners Association.

At 10:11am I sent an email to Dacy CaCavicchia at AMG with a request for the following info:

• What happened? Why were the taxes not paid?
• Confirmation once the taxes are paid.
• Any fees or penalties the HOA would be responsible for due to the late payment.
• A simple plan to avoid unpaid taxes in the future.

I followed up with a phone call about 30 minutes later. Dacy was already in contact with the county regarding the matter and had the following info.

• The county changed the address where they mail the tax bill from AMG to our old management company (Hawthorne). We do not currently know why this was done or how it happened. AMG obviously would not want to switch us to another management company and the board made no such requests.
• AMG is in the process of paying the taxes owed ($797.40). This amount includes a “Penalty” of $93.57. Dacy is checking to see if the penalty is attached to the account due to the late payment. If so, she is requesting the county remove the penalty since the management company info was changed by the county, not the HOA or its management company.
• The simple plan to correct this in the future is a calendar notice set on AMG’s calendar for January 10th. If a notice has not been sent to AMG on that date, the manager will follow up with the county. A similar notice was added to the board of directors calendar as well.

Whats next?

First things first, the taxes will be paid. The taxes are a part of the yearly budget and the board is prepared to pay them. Several years ago the board discovered the taxes could be lowered from around $8,500 to the current rates once the neighborhood no longer was controlled by the builder. Paperwork was filed with the county and the taxes were reduced to about $600 a year.

The property will NOT be auctioned, sold or otherwise transferred. Once the taxes are paid and this is resolved, the board will post another notice here on the almondglenhoa.com website in the “News” section.

Please direct all questions to almondglenhoa@gmail.com

Thanks,

Rob Smith
President
Almond Glen Owners Association, INC.