If I purchase a 2nd home that currently has a homestead exemption on it, will I be assessed rollback taxes when that homestead exemption is removed?

You will not

Not for the year you buy. But if it is not removed for subsequent years, you will be responsible for the back taxes once they discover the mistake.

Just make sure to follow up on the removal. We bought a house and the county had messed up on the previous owners taxes. They hit us for multiple years that they did not own the home. This was a year after we bought the house and we ended up paying 3 years of the previous owners taxes on the property. The county even admitted their mistake but pointed in their rules that mistakes by the county do not matter.

Did you have title insurance?

Wait how exactly can the county hold you responsible for taxes for when you did not own the house?

Yes we did and were in contact with the title company multiple times but were told that it would not cover this situation.

That is a great question. They billed our escrow before even contacting us. We only noticed because our payment went crazy since it was close to the end of the year. The previous homeowner was helpful and showed up the paperwork that he turned into county when he removed the homestead years before. He even has a letter directly from the county saying that it was there mistake in not removing it, but that taxes need to be paid. They did not go after him, they billed us.

Furlock Bones said:

---

Wait how exactly can the county hold you responsible for taxes for when you did not own the house?

---

Legally, they are probably not technically liable for the taxes. But the taxes attach to the land. So, if you would like to keep your house and not see it sold at a tax sale, . . . . . . . .

That's literally insane to me. But we are all just renting the land from the gov.

n_touch said:

---

Yes we did and were in contact with the title company multiple times but were told that it would not cover this situation.

---

I am curious about their logic. Their title insurance guarantees that you were delivered the home free and clear of any unpaid taxes or liens. Maybe because the issue arose after closing and didn't exist prior, but that is still within the coverage of the policy. There is a process you have to go through to allow them to fight it but anything short of fraud on your part would probably be paid.

Agreeing with Dallas here,

I think the title company lied to your face. You might be able to still sue the title company for not performing their duty. Just a matter of how much its worth.

It 100% should have been a title insurance issue. It is the owner of record on January 1 of each of those years that owes the tax, which means it was the seller that owes and it was the seller that paid too little tax. It is only your problem at all because of the liens that attach to the real estate which you now own. The only year where it should effect you is the tax year during which you bought it, because you have a contract with the seller that specifies how the taxes in that year should be split between you and you should probably owe some of it per that contract.

It would be bull**** to claim that since the issue "didn't exist prior," its not a title problem IMO as well. The tax lien on property comes into existence automatically on the assessment date (January 1 of that year) and is not released until the tax is fully paid (so basically never released until its no longer legal for any entity to try and impose more taxes for that year). So if the county discovers an error, and more tax is due, then that means a lien has always existed since the assessment date.

Quote:

---

TPTC Sec. 32.01. TAX LIEN. (a) On January 1 of each year, a tax lien attaches to property to secure the payment of all taxes, penalties, and interest ultimately imposed for the year on the property, whether or not the taxes are imposed in the year the lien attaches. The lien exists in favor of each taxing unit having power to tax the property.

---

Quote:

---

Sec. 32.07. PERSONAL LIABILITY FOR TAX. (a) Except as provided by Subsections (b) and (c) of this section, property taxes are the personal obligation of the person who owns or acquires the property on January 1 of the year for which the tax is imposed or would have been imposed had property not been omitted as described under Section 25.21. A person is not relieved of the obligation because he no longer owns the property.

---

I have called the title company and we are in talks with them again.