Without title insurance, new homeowner pays special assessment

The buyer was stuck with a $9,550 special assessment on her property tax bill because she waived title insurance coverage at closing.

In this story, the homebuyer purchased a property from an estate in which the prior owner decedent had been receiving Senior Citizen property tax relief.

The decedent died 18 months prior to the closing date.

The taxing authority then retroactively applied the regular tax rate to the property tax bill from the date of death – resulting in a $9,550.00 special assessment to new owner’s property tax bill.

An owner’s title insurance policy would have covered the special assessment amount but, unfortunately, the new owner had waived an owner’s title insurance policy at the time of closing. The new owner was required to pay the special assessment.

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