If a firm pays a presumed debt on your behalf that doesn't exist, are you responsible

[JRU]

What is the name of your state?SC

I haven't found a good place for this question, as it is hard to define, so I am starting here.

I received an overstated county property tax bill for my home at the end of 2003. I informed the county, and they lowered the amount by almost half. In the meantime, my mortgage co. paid the overstated amount. I informed the mortgage co., and they worked out a correction w/ the county that would involve a check from the county for the total amount paid and a new check cut by the mortgage co. for the new lower amount. This was expected to take a little while to accomplish.

I then receive in the mail a bill from Wells Fargo, saying that they had paid my outstanding county tax bill (the lower, corrected amount- it was technically outstanding I guess) and that I now owed them money. I explained the situation, and they realize their error and now are politely asking for repayment.

It concerns me that this company had access to my county tax information before the county put a tax lien on it. Wells Fargo was not acting in conjunction with my mortgage co. to "protect" me, as they repeatedly asked me who my mortgage co. was. I guess something doesn't seem right to me about this.

I'm curious, am I legally responsible for repaying Wells Fargo?

Thank you for your thoughts.

 

[MortgageGuru]

Easy Way or Hard Way

Mortgage servicers make every effort possible to keep accurate tabs on the escrows they service. But when a company is sending a check to your county to cover all the property tax payments for the loans they service you can always bet there is a mistake somewhere. Here is the best thing to do. Get the statements showing the two tax payments made to the county. Then contact Wells Fargo and give them the dates that the payments were posted. If you can get the check #'s for the payments then they can pull up each item and manually make the fix. Otherwise, they will have to look them up. If it doesn't get resolved, your next bill will be higher in order to adjust for the escrow discrepancy. They can do that and will do it unless you can show them that you are right and they are wrong.

 

[Tankerwife]

So are you saying Wells Fargo isn't your mortgage company?

Were your taxes considered delq. and listed in the newspaper for purchase?

A tax lien does not have to be in place for someone to purchase your delq. tax bill.

Sounds like Wells Fargo purchased the delq. tax bill. I would tell your mortgage company what happened and see what needs to happen to fix this problem.

 

[blameshifting]

I don't understand what the relationship between you and Wells Fargo is/was. Are you asserting that there isn't any relationship and effectively a complete stranger came along and paid your tax bill?

Did they buy a tax lien certificate on your property and are asking you to redeem it for the amount they paid plus interest? It doesn't sound like that is what happened as your mortgage company, according to you, paid the original tax bill and you are just trying to get a reduction worked out.