Question re real estate tax problem

Too long to go into my real estate tax problem, but I wanted to pose a question here before I call my town again (the staff there has not been helpful and basically rushes me along).

Part of the problem, I have been told, and I am trying my best to remember the name, involves a company called “Corsap” or “Corsair.” “Cor”-something, anyway. It may be a company that has something to do with escrow (and embarrassingly I am not certain what escrow exactly is) and that makes payments on behalf of clients. Does this name sound familiar at all to any tax experts here and do you know the actual name of the company? That way I can do a search; these names do not bring up anything relevant. Thanks…

Part of the problem, I have been told, and I am trying my best to remember the name, involves a company called “Corsap” or “Corsair.” “Cor”-something, anyway. It may be a company that has something to do with escrow (and embarrassingly I am not certain what escrow exactly is) and that makes payments on behalf of clients. Does this name sound familiar at all to any tax experts here and do you know the actual name of the company? That way I can do a search; these names do not bring up anything relevant.

Escrow accounts for property taxes generally are associated with a mortgage. In addition to the principal and interest payment, the mortgage servicer will collect money to pay for property taxes (and often, homeowner’s insurance). Until the payments for the taxes and insurance are due, the money is put aside in an escrow account. Some, but not all, states require that interest be paid on escrow accounts.

Not all mortgages have escrow accounts. Personally, whenever I get a mortgage, I prefer to not have escrow accounts, because I’ve seen problems with the correct amount of taxes being paid on time from escrow accounts. You may have to pay a little extra at closing if you opt for not having escrow accounts.

My guess is that the company you are trying to think of is CoreLogic - mortgage servicers often contract out to CoreLogic for managing property taxes and escrow accounts. That said, I would suggest starting with your mortgage company, presuming you have a mortgage. You are unlikely to be able to find a way to contact CoreLogic directly, since they probably work for your mortgage company.

Here’s a couple of different possibilities that I thought of: If your property taxes were delinquent, even if you didn’t have an escrow account, your mortgage company may have had stepped in to pay the taxes for you. Or if it appeared that you were delinquent because your property tax payments were given a grace period during the pandemic, but your mortgage company wasn’t aware of that, they may have paid the taxes, and then you also paid them, so now you’re ahead on your taxes. Because your mortgage company thought they had to step in to pay the taxes, they may have set an escrow account up for your mortgage, and if you are still paying them, too, that will compound the situation even more.

AJ

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AJ, thank you very much for this. You’ve given me some ideas there, and it sounds like some of that may be what’s happening (in terms of stepping in and paying them, thinking I was the account they needed to do that for).

And yes, it must be CoreLogic. I will research them now. (We do have a new mortgage…I don’t really take care of that stuff, so like I say not an expert on it, but it was for renovations, and that apparently comes into play here.) And that’s indeed what I was told…the company they mentioned gets contracted.

Thanks again, that was really helpful…and cool that you responded now, because I will be contacting the office in a few hours…

We do have a new mortgage
How new?
If it’s >2 months old, you should have at least 1 statement from them.
On that statement it should detail what the payment will be used for.
If there’s an escrow account, it should separate your payment out into principal, interest, and escrow.
If not, it’ll be just principal and interest.

If it’s <2 months old, you can look at your closing docs and find information about the escrow. Often there will be an initial amount put into the escrow account at closing. And there will also be information in the contract about whether the mortgage includes an escrow account or not. Also, if it’s <2 months old, possibly as part of closing property taxes were paid. (I’ve had 1 time where property taxes were due very close to time of closing, so they were to be paid as part of the closing.)