Desiree Townsend and her husband Mark have been enjoying their home in Taunton for a little over a year.
One day back in June, they got an unexpected letter in the mail.
"The Taunton tax collector’s office sent us a demand notice, stating that we were late on our taxes," said Desiree.
That didn’t sound right to her.
"We’ve always been right on time. It’s automatic deposit so it’s always been right in there," said Desiree.
Desiree went straight down to the tax office, but was told she had to wait a few days to straighten things out.
In early July, she went back to the office armed with paperwork from Wells Fargo showing that the payments were sent in as scheduled and on-time. Clerks there told her everything was cleared up and not to worry, but they wouldn’t give her anything in writing.
Six weeks later The Townsends received another letter.
"Our records indicate that you are delinquent in the payments of your real estate taxes," the letter said.
The letter goes on to say, "If your account is not paid in full within 30 days of this letter, the city will advertise the public notice of your tax delinquency in a local newspaper."
"We’re law abiding citizens doing everything we’re supposed to, paying our taxes and they threaten to publically shame us! Nope. Not gonna happen. You’re gonna put me in the newspaper? I’m gonna call Channel 7 news," explained Desiree.
And she did, Desiree called Solve It 7.
We made a series of calls to the tax office and eventually the Mayor’s chief of staff called us back. She gave us what nobody would give to Desiree: records showing their taxes had been paid.
Most importantly to Desiree, they put it in writing saying, "I can assure you that her name will not be printed in the newspaper next month for delinquent fiscal year 2015 taxes."
Case closed.
"This is all I wanted. Thank you very much," Desiree said.
Are you dealing with a taxing situation of your own? Maybe we can assess your problem and help out. Give us a call at 617-367-7777 or send us an email to SolveIt7@whdh.com
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