Post Home Purchase Issue - Please Help

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May 7th, 2020 4:58 pm

Emily0123 [OP]: Member; Dec 21, 2019; 214 posts; 71 upvotes

May 7th, 2020 4:58 pm

Post Home Purchase Issue - Please Help

Hey guys. I am stuck in a bit of an issue and I am hoping to get some advice.

I purchased a condo back in February, 2020. The property tax bill was created in which the previous owners owe their portion for January which I assume was calculated by the lawyer’s office which they have paid.

The issue is that since this was a new construction property last year when the previous owners purchased it, a new account fee for the city to make an account was charged after the bill was created which was not on the initial bill. Now that the property tax ownership has been changed to my name, I am stuck with that extra fee which should have been the responsibility of the previous owner. This fee is different from the change of ownership fee which I am responsible for.

I have contacted my lawyer’s office about this but it seems like they have not been successful in getting the previous owners to pay this fee as it’s now been 3 months. My lawyer’s office is now not answering my phone calls and I am still stuck with this fee.

I also called the city regarding this and they are making it more complicated as their system used the previous owner’s January payment to pay/credit the new account fee.

Is there anything else I can go about doing to get this fee off my chest? This has been really stressing me out.

Thanks in advance.

36 replies

May 7th, 2020 6:45 pm

jonnyb: Deal Addict; Dec 27, 2007; 1294 posts; 724 upvotes; Oshawa

May 7th, 2020 6:45 pm

An ownership fee change is 57.20, the tax account ownership change fee is 40.01.
Either way, how much money are we talking about? Are you really stressing out over $40 or so?

+4

May 7th, 2020 6:57 pm

senasena: Deal Addict; Feb 19, 2019; 1569 posts; 2355 upvotes; Stouffville ON

May 7th, 2020 6:57 pm

Title insurance should cover it assuming you bought it.

Full Time and Full Service Realtor

May 7th, 2020 6:59 pm

senasena: Deal Addict; Feb 19, 2019; 1569 posts; 2355 upvotes; Stouffville ON

May 7th, 2020 6:59 pm

jonnyb wrote: ↑ An ownership fee change is 57.20, the tax account ownership change fee is 40.01.
Either way, how much money are we talking about? Are you really stressing out over $40 or so?

I think she is talking about reassessed property taxes for the period she didn't own the condo, it sometimes happens that the city takes long time to properly assess the taxes for new builds. If that is the case it should be covered by title insurance.

Full Time and Full Service Realtor

May 7th, 2020 8:40 pm

Emily0123 [OP]: Member; Dec 21, 2019; 214 posts; 71 upvotes

May 7th, 2020 8:40 pm

jonnyb wrote: ↑An ownership fee change is 57.20, the tax account ownership change fee is 40.01.
Either way, how much money are we talking about? Are you really stressing out over $40 or so?

senasena wrote: ↑ Title insurance should cover it assuming you bought it.

Since this was a new property made last year, the city had to make a new account for Property Taxes for this property. The fee to make this new account was $50. The city was late in adding this fee to the account (they said it takes time for the system to realize and add the fee) so I am now stuck with this charge rather than the previous owner because I had bought the property off the previous owner before the fee was added.

To make matters worse, the city’s system used the previous owner’s January portion payment that they paid for January to cover the $50 fee first and then the rest of the portion to the property tax balance showing the fee as paid. So I am still technically still missing that $50.

May 7th, 2020 8:41 pm

Emily0123 [OP]: Member; Dec 21, 2019; 214 posts; 71 upvotes

May 7th, 2020 8:41 pm

jonnyb wrote: ↑ An ownership fee change is 57.20, the tax account ownership change fee is 40.01.
Either way, how much money are we talking about? Are you really stressing out over $40 or so?

Hi Jonny, it’s $50. But it’s not the amount of the fee that’s been stressing me out, it’s the amount of time that this has been dragging on for. It’s really annoying.

May 7th, 2020 8:42 pm

Emily0123 [OP]: Member; Dec 21, 2019; 214 posts; 71 upvotes

May 7th, 2020 8:42 pm

senasena wrote: ↑ Title insurance should cover it assuming you bought it.

Yes I bought title insurance. How do I go about getting it covered through that?

May 7th, 2020 9:34 pm

Furcorn: Deal Addict; Jun 7, 2017; 1043 posts; 831 upvotes; BC

May 7th, 2020 9:34 pm

Go pick up some yummy take-out food and stop stressing out about $50.

+7

May 7th, 2020 9:39 pm

SaskCanesFan: Member; Nov 24, 2019; 434 posts; 516 upvotes; Saskatoon

May 7th, 2020 9:39 pm

You.. made this thread over a $50 fee...?

Emily0123 wrote: ↑ Hi Jonny, it’s $50. But it’s not the amount of the fee that’s been stressing me out, it’s the amount of time that this has been dragging on for. It’s really annoying.

Then pay $50 and move on with your life?

+10

May 7th, 2020 9:40 pm

Emily0123 [OP]: Member; Dec 21, 2019; 214 posts; 71 upvotes

May 7th, 2020 9:40 pm

Furcorn wrote: ↑ Go pick up some yummy take-out food and stop stressing out about $50.

What do you mean? If I just leave it as is and not worry about it, wouldn’t the balance still be there just collecting interest forever?

May 7th, 2020 9:42 pm

Emily0123 [OP]: Member; Dec 21, 2019; 214 posts; 71 upvotes

May 7th, 2020 9:42 pm

SaskCanesFan wrote: ↑ You.. made this thread over a $50 fee...?

Then pay $50 and move on with your life?

Sry, why should I be paying money that someone else should owe?

May 7th, 2020 9:56 pm

CNeufeld: Deal Guru; Mar 23, 2008; 13002 posts; 9929 upvotes; Edmonton

May 7th, 2020 9:56 pm

Emily0123 wrote: ↑ Sry, why should I be paying money that someone else should owe?

You shouldn’t have to. But at some point, you need to put a value on your time. If it takes you 10 hours to save $50, you’re effectively working for $5/hour.

Go through your paperwork for your title insurance, and figure out how to make a claim, if you want to. That’s probably your least effort way to do things.

C

+13

May 7th, 2020 9:59 pm

Furcorn: Deal Addict; Jun 7, 2017; 1043 posts; 831 upvotes; BC

May 7th, 2020 9:59 pm

Emily0123 wrote: ↑ Sry, why should I be paying money that someone else should owe?

Emily, you sound young. As you gain experience and wisdom through age or business, you will discover that your mission is to do well and continue forward, not to try to win all battles at any cost. Dealing efficiently with side issues which can derail you from your mission is an incredibly valuable skill. Avoiding such issues, which are virtually inevitable, would grant you god-like status.

+8

May 7th, 2020 10:09 pm

hierophant: Deal Fanatic; Feb 4, 2010; 5920 posts; 5087 upvotes

May 7th, 2020 10:09 pm

Congrats on your new home and welcome to home ownership! I get what you're saying, it's the principle of the matter but I agree with some of the other posters...it's about what you value. Fighting/stressing over $50 that you don't technically owe isn't really worth it especially - you will see this as you encounter other costs of home ownership. You will also experience getting ripped off or what you deem unfair by businesses, contractors, and the city...up to you which battle to choose. I don't think this is one of them...if the previous owners owe this money and aren't paying for it, that's their karma, how you react to it is yours.

+2

May 7th, 2020 10:27 pm

EugW: Deal Expert; Mar 23, 2009; 20339 posts; 6515 upvotes; Toronto

May 7th, 2020 10:27 pm

I'm flabbergasted this thread exists because of $50.

This is nothing. If your biggest issue with the last owners is this, consider yourself extremely lucky. $50 vs the price of the condo is less than 0.1%.

Plus, it's not even their fault. They didn't know about such a fee, so of course they didn't pay it.

The title insurance option seems like a route if you're really gonna stress over fifty bucks, but I personally wouldn't bother.

+6

May 7th, 2020 11:13 pm

Emily0123 [OP]: Member; Dec 21, 2019; 214 posts; 71 upvotes

May 7th, 2020 11:13 pm

Furcorn wrote: ↑ Emily, you sound young. As you gain experience and wisdom through age or business, you will discover that your mission is to do well and continue forward, not to try to win all battles at any cost. Dealing efficiently with side issues which can derail you from your mission is an incredibly valuable skill. Avoiding such issues, which are virtually inevitable, would grant you god-like status.

hierophant wrote: ↑Congrats on your new home and welcome to home ownership! I get what you're saying, it's the principle of the matter but I agree with some of the other posters...it's about what you value. Fighting/stressing over $50 that you don't technically owe isn't really worth it especially - you will see this as you encounter other costs of home ownership. You will also experience getting ripped off or what you deem unfair by businesses, contractors, and the city...up to you which battle to choose. I don't think this is one of them...if the previous owners owe this money and aren't paying for it, that's their karma, how you react to it is yours.

EugW wrote: ↑ I'm flabbergasted this thread exists because of $50.

This is nothing. If your biggest issue with the last owners is this, consider yourself extremely lucky. $50 vs the price of the condo is less than 0.1%.

Plus, it's not even their fault. They didn't know about such a fee, so of course they didn't pay it.

The title insurance option seems like a route if you're really gonna stress over fifty bucks, but I personally wouldn't bother.

Thanks for the responses guys, I understand what you guys are saying about it not being worth it for the effort.

This is about the principle of the matter in addition to the way that they have behaved throughout the whole process of the transaction including the attitude they showed when I contacted them about this fee. They are aware of this fee but they are refusing to pay it.

I am willing to put in time to get this solved. I am not doing much these days anyways, just staying inside as everything is closed.

May 7th, 2020 11:16 pm

Emily0123 [OP]: Member; Dec 21, 2019; 214 posts; 71 upvotes

May 7th, 2020 11:16 pm

CNeufeld wrote: ↑ You shouldn’t have to. But at some point, you need to put a value on your time. If it takes you 10 hours to save $50, you’re effectively working for $5/hour.

Go through your paperwork for your title insurance, and figure out how to make a claim, if you want to. That’s probably your least effort way to do things.

C

I will look into the paperwork for the title insurance tommorrow.

If title insurance ends up covering it, do you know how it works in terms of if the company will just eat the cost or will they go after the previous owners for that money?

Thanks for the response, appreciate it.

May 7th, 2020 11:36 pm

chizzayhizzay: Newbie; Oct 14, 2019; 65 posts; 371 upvotes

May 7th, 2020 11:36 pm

Have you considered suing the previous owner for emotional distress while you're at it? If not, it's definitely worth your time looking into it. In fact, sue your lawyer too.

+3

May 7th, 2020 11:46 pm

Emily0123 [OP]: Member; Dec 21, 2019; 214 posts; 71 upvotes

May 7th, 2020 11:46 pm

chizzayhizzay wrote: ↑ Have you considered suing the previous owner for emotional distress while you're at it? If not, it's definitely worth your time looking into it. In fact, sue your lawyer too.

Sry, unfortunately I don’t have the money to sue.

May 7th, 2020 11:56 pm

jhanbhaia: Sr. Member; May 11, 2009; 651 posts; 228 upvotes

May 7th, 2020 11:56 pm

You're wasting your time. If you're worried about this $50 wait until you see all the fees you'll pay over the lifetime of having mortgages. Just forget it, pay it and move on.

+2

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