the good, the bad, the sneaky.

I am a realtor since 1977 in San Francisco... I own and manage properties. Two years ago, I bought a condo in Cambridge, Mass.

Boy, what a difference!...

Here, the approach of the SF Tax Collector Office is like "You got a complaint.. go sue the City"

You can outlline reasonable ways of improving things, and you might as well talk to the wall.

Case #1 : Supplemental and Escaped Taxes. If you didnot get the Supplemental tax bill, because of any reason, you are out of luck, big time...

They will write you a letter or two, but if they had the wrong address, and you are not getting these, the late charges keep piling up....in a "dark and damp Pickle closet" reserved only for when you sell the property, or they try to sell it out from under you.

You could be checking online, each year, and seeing what your regular annual tax bill was, and paying it, faithfully, and all the while the little "tax tumor" in the Pickle Closet keeps growing.

(actual case: a person bought a condo, and rented it out... The Supplemental Tax Bill went to the condo, assumably. The renters don't recall seeing it.... Three years go by, and, by accident, the condo owner learns that there is this little "tax tumor", and he has to pay it (no problem) and has to pay Penalties that far exceed the Supplemental bill.

We protest to three levels within the Tax Collector Office, and wind up being told "We can do nothing, go sue the City. There is NO APPEALING this matter, within City government"

They acknowledge that the City Tax Collector's website is totally misleading, as it has no mention of the past due balance.

How it should be: In Cambridge, Mass....they have all kinds of cross-references in their tax bills, and on their website. If you owe a "prior balance" for a prior matter, they keep factoring in that prior bill, into what they say you owe. The effect: any "little tax polyps" are snipped out before they morph into a huge tumor.

Does our Tax Collector Office have any interest in effecting any such changes to their site.??
No.
Does the Tax Collector even return emails sent to him?? No.