Back property taxes? St. Joseph County will work with you.
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - If you are a homeowner in St. Joseph County and owe back property taxes, the County Treasurer says you can set up a payment plan and keep your home.
“We’ve had people call in this morning that are $500 behind, we’ve had people up to $5,000 behind. It really depends on the value of your home,” St. Joseph County Treasurer Tim Swager says.
Monday was the day to pay up on those back property taxes.
“They have to get their payment in by 4:30 (Wednesday) to stay off the list,” Swager says
However, if you didn’t make that deadline, you do have options.
“They are on that sale list, but they have until September 1st to give us a call,” Swager says.
St. Joseph County’s Tax Sale is slated for September 7th through the 9th. If your home is on the list for the sale because of back property taxes, the treasurer says you can set up a 12-month payment plan to get off that list.
“There’s still time it’s going to be more costly. They are going to have to catch up on all three property tax installments that they’re behind. So that would be Spring 2020, Fall 2020, and Spring 2021, they will have to catch up on those payments within the payment plan after today,” Swager says.
So who’s eligible? Those who claim the Homestead Deduction, and have their home scheduled for the county sale for owing property taxes. This is designed to help people who got hit hard during the pandemic.
“Cut hours, job loss, all kinds of economic hardships. So we want to extend a little bit more time and flexibility to them, hopefully save them some heartache,” Swager adds.
Ray Davis is one of those people, hoping to save some heartache.
“They did set me up with a minimum payment to keep the property out of tax sale.” Davis says. “It’s a good thing but it’s better than losing your property.”
That’s what this payment program is all about. It is another option to avoid the county tax sale, keeping home where the heart is, and not a source of heartache.
“Give us a call, we can work with you on starting to whittle away at the debt. I know it can be overwhelming, it can feel hopeless at times but if we can start chipping away at it I think we can make the burden to you a lot less and we’ll keep you in your home,” Swager says.
To set up a payment plan you can email the treasurer at treasurer@sjcindiana.com or call them at 574-235-9539.
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