Three years after closing escrow, tax penalty arrives

DEAR BARRY: We sold a condo about three years ago and thought the transaction was history. But this week we received a delinquent property tax bill for an increased assessment that was applied just before we sold the property. We thought that it was the responsibility of the escrow company to research outstanding bills of this kind and to pro-rate them between buyers and sellers. The real estate agent who handled the transaction for us is advising us to ignore the assessment. She says it is not our responsibility.

Did the escrow company screw up on this tax assessment, and will this come back to haunt us if we do not pay? We’re concerned this may affect our future credit rating.

—Mike DEAR MIKE: This is not a home inspection question, so it is outside my area of expertise. However, ignoring a delinquent tax bill in the hope that it will go away does not sound like a wise strategy, and I’m surprised your agent would suggest such a thing. Bureaucracies have sharp teeth, as it were. Ignoring their snarl is not a smart approach.

Ordinarily, tax assessments of this kind are discovered in the course of an escrow. However, since the assessment occurred just before you sold the property, it may not have become part of the public record at the time the escrow company was doing its research.

My advice is to visit the tax

assessor’s office to get the full details and to explain that you had no way of knowing about the assessment at the time. Hopefully, they will be willing to make some adjustments.

DEAR BARRY: I’m selling my house, and the buyer’s inspector says there should be a firewall in the garage. The house and garage were built in 1942, when firewalls probably weren’t even required. Shouldn’t the inspector have considered the age of the building before making this recommendation to the buyer?

—Peter DEAR PETER: You will be surprised to know that firewalls were required in attached garages in 1942. In fact, the code was first established in the 1927 edition of the Uniform Building Code. The fire separation table in section 503 of that code specifies that there shall be “ordinary separation” between a dwelling and a garage. On the preceding page, section 503.b.3 states, “An ‘Ordinary Fire Separation’ shall provide an effective resistance to the passage of fire for not less than one hour...”

This section also states that “Openings in ‘Ordinary Fire Separations’ shall be protected by self-closing metal clad doors…” By today’s standards, a door can be fire-rated without being metal clad. For example, a solid-core door is fire-rated if it is at least 1 3/8 inches thick.