Has Anyone Else Had Problems with the New Tax Collector?

There's a New Sheriff In Town: Meet Mr. Juan Uribe, Chief Financial Officer and Tax Collector

Dear Fellow Maplewoodians,

I write to warn you. Maplewood has a new Chief Financial Officer and Tax Collector. His name is Mr. Juan Uribe, and he is one tough customer. He’s a very hard, unbending guy. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT MESS WITH THIS MAN. If you do, he’ll kick your butt up and down Valley Street.

Mr. Uribe has been on the job in Maplewood since June 2014. He comes to us from Elizabeth (2007 to 2011), then from Asbury Park (2011 to 2012), and then from Hillside (2013 to 2014).

How tough is Mr. Uribe?

He’s so tough that he put my house on the tax sale list for unpaid balance of the sewer taxes owed for my property from 2014 in the amount of $13.00. That’s right. That’s what I said. Thirteen dollars. Unbeknownst to me until just a few weeks ago, I owed the Township an unpaid balance of $13.00 for sewer taxes for 2014. I also learned that being put on the tax sale list entails a fine, or, as the Township calls them, “costs,” in the additional amount of $65.00.

But wait, there’s more. Mr. Uribe is even tougher than that. How tough? Well, he’s so tough that he says that cares not at all about the fact that I never got a notice that my property was being placed on the tax sale list for the unpaid balance of $13 before it happened. In fact, on the same day (Tuesday, August 25th), I received two notices by regular mail. One notice was designated a “Delinquent Notice,” and was obviously intended to inform me that there was this minor problem with the unpaid balance of $13. The Delinquent Notice came in an envelope with no postmark on it. The other notice, which was postmarked Friday, August 21, was, you guessed it, a “Tax Sale Notice.” Done deal. Tax sale, no prior notice, and an additional charge in the amount of $65 for “costs.”

Mr. Uribe is so tough that when I asked him to waive the costs because (a) my error in paying the sewer taxes was inadvertent (no intent not to pay the taxes), and (b) it is really problematic to send out a Delinquent Notice that arrives on the same day as the Tax Sale Notice, his response was, essentially, “too bad.” He
could legally do this, he said, and therefore, he thinks, he was right to do it. Pay up, including the costs, he
says, or someone gets a lien on your property. Wow, is this guy tough, or what?

So, I'd like to dedicate this song to Mr. Juan Uribe:

But, seriously, what happened?

Well, we lost track of the 2014 sewer tax bill, and didn’t realize that we didn’t pay it. No subsequent notices came. When we paid the bill for 2015, the Township applied the payment to the bill for 2014, but that left the unpaid balance of $13. We thought we were paying the 2015 bill. A proper notice any time after July 2015 would have led us to make a full payment immediately for both years, plus all the interest to which the Township was entitled. But no subsequent notice came. It seems to me that the imposition of an additional $65 in costs is just plain wrong, because there was no notice about placement on the tax sale list before it happened.

And our Township Committee? I’ve notified them. I’ve ask for them to intervene to have the costs waived because the notice didn’t arrive on time for me to do anything about a problem I did not know existed (and, by the way, did I mention that the unpaid balance from 2014 was $13?). Their response? A unified front of silence.

Mr. Uribe responded to my request to waive the costs with the legal brief reproduced below. After I received this note from him, I wrote to ask him to clarify whether in his view he had the legal discretion to waive the costs, and, if so, to state why he wouldn’t do that. He responded that he would not answer any further questions. I’ve reproduced his note, my follow up question, and his reply below (and, for the record, I tried to pay all sewer taxes owed, plus interest, on August 26, but the Township would not accept any payment unless the payment included the $65 in costs).

If anyone else has had problems with this guy, then you should let the Township Committee, and everyone else, know about it.

********************

September 11, 2015

Mr. Paris,

In answer to your inquiry to the Township Committee, I apologize for the inconvenience; nevertheless neither the Tax Collector nor the Governing Body are allowed much flexibility pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:5-1 et seq. (tax sale law), which is the strongest mechanism municipalities have to enforce collection of delinquent taxes, fees and other charges.

Your delinquent balance of $13.65 derived from an unpaid balance of 2014 sewer charges in the amount of
$175.00, which was due on 7/01/14, as shown in the attachments. On 7/13/15 you made a payment online in the amount of $161.37, leaving an open balance for charges occurred in the prior year, which is automatically enforceable for collection via tax sale.

Among other stringent requirements, the tax sale law obliges the Collector to assess a 2% charge over the delinquent balance (minimum $15, maximum $100), additionally advertising and mailing costs ($25.00 per instance) must be recouped pursuant to N.J.S.A. 54:5-19.1(c) and R.S. 54:5-38.

Regarding proper notice related to delinquent balances, we exercise caution and do our best diligence to notify taxpayers in advance, but if notices are not timely received due to post office mail delivery or other issues, it does not excuse the taxpayers from paying municipal taxes, charges or fees legitimately and lawfully assessed, as ascertained by N.J.S.A. 54:5-6.

Being a taxpayer with expertise on the laws, I am sure that you will understand the legitimacy and
transparency of the charges after perusing the New Jersey Statutes referred above. Following links, as well as the attachments may be helpful in current and future situations: http://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/dlgs/programs/tax_collector_docs/elements_of_tax_sales_nj.pdf,
http://www.njlawblog.com/2013/07/articles/real-estate/understanding-new-jersey-tax-sale-foreclosures/

As a reminder, your 2015 sewer bill has not been paid yet, please, keep it in mind to prevent a similar situation next year.

Please, contact me with any questions.

Best regards,

Juan Uribe, CFO

CCFO/CMFO/CTC/QPA

**********************

September 11, 2015

Dear Mr. Uribe:

Thank you for your thorough response. I remain uncertain about one question. It is unclear to me which of the following two statements you are making:

1.) The township, or some official of the township, legally has the discretion to waive the imposition of court costs (the $65), in this case, but you do not think that a waiver is warranted or justified under these facts.

2.) Under state law, there is no legal discretion to waive the court costs.

Could you please indicate which of these two statements you are making?

Thanks so much for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Michael Paris

*************************

September 15, 2015

Mr. Paris,

You described our response as thorough; therefore, I do not see the need to elaborate further.

Regards,

Juan Uribe, CFO

"Well, we lost track of the 2014 sewer tax bill, and didn’t realize that we didn’t pay it."

This really is the crux of it. Just pay the bill and the fine and move on. You're making WAY too big of a deal out of this.

It is a big deal. You can lose your house over an outstanding balance of $13. As imonlysleeping writes, this is one of those times when you should simply pay the bill including any interest and handling charges and move on.

The timing of the delinquent notice and the tax sale notice is the one thing in all this that I would bring to the town's attention. If the town is going to the trouble and expense of sending a delinquent notice, it would be helpful to all concerned to do this in advance of issuing the tax sale list so property owners have the opportunity to respond.

If they are not doing this already, it might be helpful in the future for the town to put the list of properties in danger of being placed on the tax sale list on the town website in advance of the list being made official and sending an e-mail blast with a link to that list. Heading could read something like: PROPERTIES IN DANGER OF BEING PLACED ON TAX LIST (insert date list is to be officially issued) IF OUTSTANDING DEBT IS NOT PAID BY (insert reply date). Even if the delinquent taxpayer does not use the internet, curious friends and neighbors receiving this e-mail will check the list and notify friends and neighbors who are on it.

They publish notice of the tax lien sale every year as well as the tax lien sale list every year. The tax lien sale statute helps municipalities monetize delinquent tax collections. Easy fix. Don't be delinquent

You are making too big a deal of your failure to pay this tax that is due every year. It is not the fault of the township's tax collector. Every year, for whatever reason, hundreds of property owners in town fail to make timely payments of this tax and every year the township publishes a long list of those in delinquency. (One of my neighbors routinely made this list and every year I would catch their name on the list and notify them.)

I imagine that state law defines where the list is published. I know that the list is printed in the News Record and perhaps some other paper. Now that so many of us receive news electronically vs local printed papers, I wish that the township would, as a courtesy to us taxpayers, also publish the list on the township website.

For what it is worth, collection of this tax and the related delinquencies, not to mention the related tax liens, is a major time consuming process for the tax collector's office. Think about it in terms of the effort to collect this relatively small tax from each property owner vs. the time expended for the much larger quarterly property tax. Yeah, I can see why there is no wiggle room to waive a penalty for your negligence.

A public servant doing his job as called for by the law. Good to see.

I just checked the Maplewood township web-site. A link to the tax sale list is included at the bottom of the Tax Collector page ( http://www.twp.maplewood.nj.us/index.aspx?nid=226 ). The page also includes clear language describing the duties of the tax collector as defined by NJ statutes.

As Joan noted earlier, to many it would be great if the township sent out an email notice when the list is online.

Dear Friends, Thanks for your comments.

Yes, I was well aware of "you are making way too big a deal out of this" before I posted my concerns. Much easier to own the mistake, pay the fine, and move on. But, with all due respect, I'll stick to the view that it is a little odd to move to a tax sale for an unpaid balance of $13 in the first place, and unfair for a homeowner to receive a delinquent notice AND a tax sale notice (with the costs) on the very same day. An obscure list on an obscure website isn't really notice. And, as you can see, speaking up can help. The Township should worry about giving people timely and adequate actual notice, period.

We live in an age when individuals increasingly have all of the responsibilities, obligations, burdens, and large bureaucratic organizations, governmental and non-governmental, have none.

Cheers,

Michael Paris

MichaelParis said:
Dear Friends, Thanks for your comments.
Yes, I was well aware of "you are making way too big a deal out of this" before I posted my concerns. Much easier to own the mistake, pay the fine, and move on. But, with all due respect, I'll stick to the view that it is a little odd to move to a tax sale for an unpaid balance of $13 in the first place, and unfair for a homeowner to receive a delinquent notice AND a tax sale notice (with the costs) on the very same day. An obscure list on an obscure website isn't really notice. And, as you can see, speaking up can help. The Township should worry about giving people timely and adequate actual notice, period.

We live in an age when individuals increasingly have all of the responsibilities, obligations, burdens, and large bureaucratic organizations, governmental and non-governmental, have none.
Cheers,
Michael Paris

I agree, but does the royal tax collector have any choice but to follow the law?

Certainly more should be done to protect homeowners in these cases. From time to time, we read stories about people who end up being thrown out of their homes because of this.

But, to address one claim made above, you are not going to lose your house over 13 dollars. I don't think that's how it works. The buyer at a tax lien auction has to follow a bunch of rules to let you pay off the debt with even more added fees, but they don't just show up with a sheriff and toss you out.

FilmCarp said:
But, to address one claim made above, you are not going to lose your house over 13 dollars. I don't think that's how it works. The buyer at a tax lien auction has to follow a bunch of rules to let you pay off the debt with even more added fees, but they don't just show up with a sheriff and toss you out.

Hopefully not in New Jersey, but in some states, the law is less forgiving.

Why not just leave the tax lien in place with interest. Then, when the home is sold, the town gets a nice chunk of money as the the lien is settled.

If the amount is really material, on the other hand, then go after it.

MichaelParis said:
Dear Friends, Thanks for your comments.
Yes, I was well aware of "you are making way too big a deal out of this" before I posted my concerns. Much easier to own the mistake, pay the fine, and move on. But, with all due respect, I'll stick to the view that it is a little odd to move to a tax sale for an unpaid balance of $13 in the first place, and unfair for a homeowner to receive a delinquent notice AND a tax sale notice (with the costs) on the very same day. An obscure list on an obscure website isn't really notice. And, as you can see, speaking up can help. The Township should worry about giving people timely and adequate actual notice, period.

We live in an age when individuals increasingly have all of the responsibilities, obligations, burdens, and large bureaucratic organizations, governmental and non-governmental, have none.
Cheers,
Michael Paris

Its not that obscure. Others have found the list.

He really doesn't have a choice. You have an unpaid balance. If you don't pay after a year you're on a tax sale. I'd like to see a credit card company wait a year before they try to recoup.

He can't "excuse" you from a tax sale. If he did, he'd be violating state law and if he did, then what about the guy who owes $45 or $75, etc?

The township can pass an ordinance "excusing" tax payers from a sale for small amounts, like less than $100. But that ordinance would not be legal. An ordinance cannot override state law. If they tried that and ordered the tax payer to excuse you and others, I suspect the state would come down on them like a ton of bricks.

The tax collector is doing the job he is paid to do.

BG9 said:

MichaelParis said:

The tax collector is doing the job he is paid to do.

This is my conclusion as well. You should pay up and let it go.

tjohn said:

FilmCarp said:
But, to address one claim made above, you are not going to lose your house over 13 dollars. I don't think that's how it works. The buyer at a tax lien auction has to follow a bunch of rules to let you pay off the debt with even more added fees, but they don't just show up with a sheriff and toss you out.

Hopefully not in New Jersey, but in some states, the law is less forgiving.
Why not just leave the tax lien in place with interest. Then, when the home is sold, the town gets a nice chunk of money as the the lien is settled.
If the amount is really material, on the other hand, then go after it.

Don't municipalities sell tax liens? And don' the buyers of liens (with several important steps in between) have the ability to sieze the house and sell it from under you?

They do. But as you say "with several important steps in between". I think they need to wait at least a year and then need to go to court. So while there have been rare instances of an injustice typically people have plenty of opportunity to be aware this is happening. The biggest issue is I think if the lein buyer does get the property the former owner gets nothing regardless of the worth of the property and the size of the lien.

Right. that's my point. You can't just let the lien sit until you decide to sell the house.

Firstly, no investor is going to buy a lone13 dollar tax lien unless they're braindead or they buy all the remnants from the town, which some of them do if there's a significant aggrgegate amount of low dollar liens unbid upon, which, in the aggregate, do mean something to the town. The de minimis amounts offered at a tax lien sale are otherwise presumed by an investor to be shortfalls which will be rectified within the grace period after the sale so it's usually of no value whatsoever to buy those. Secondly, if we let every de minimis delinquency off the hook it would be unfair to all taxpayers and moreover a tax collector should not and does have discretion on excluding delinquencies from the tax sale list. They either sell all of them or they sell none.

Eta: the tax sale notice put you on notice of the sale, which loooks like is in October, so consider yourself lucky and pay it. I will say that the list does look like it has a lot of sewer charges on it this year but it always does. add up all the delinquent sewer charges and that's real money to the town. By the time the sale comes, half of those if not more will have been paid, plus you have ten days as i recall after the sale to pay without having to pay the interest due the investor, which starts at 18% and gets bid down at the auction

Robert_Casotto said:
Secondly, if we let every de minimis delinquency off the hook it would be unfair to all taxpayers and moreover a tax collector should not and does have discretion on excluding delinquencies from the tax sale list. They either sell all of them or they sell none.

This. He does his job, and he does not give anyone special treatment. Government working as it is supposed to.

Did you offer to pay him the fine in cash in a plain white envelope?

Juan is fairly new to the job but it his is job and he is doing it as it should be done in my estimation I of course miss Peter Fresulone who was a fine gentleman but so is Juan and we're lucky to have him.

I think that the Town should have issued a balance notice when they received the wrong payment.

I'm also surprised to read people's comments basically saying "shut up and pay up". You guys would do very well in Russia.

Nowhere did I read where the OP said the Town should not be paid the $13. What I understand him saying is that if there was a professional good business practices procedure in the Town to advise people when bills are not paid in full, none of this would have ensued. When any of us short-pay any of our bills, we are given a notice of some kind from the company before they lower the boom. That's just good business.

As many of you here suggest, the onus is on the OP (or, frankly, any of us) to check the tax lien sale list to see if he's on it. Seriously? Not once in all the years I lived in Maplewood (or anywhere, for that matter) did I ever check the sale list. Why would I unless I knew I owed the town any money? If that is the case, then all of you would have to check every credit card company you do business with, your mortgage companies, your cable company, and on and on each and every day to make sure you're not on their list for owing them money. And that exercise I'm sure would take a big chunk of your day to accomplish.

Yes, Mr. Uribe "did his job". But there's a difference between doing your job and doing your job dickishly, which I think is the case here. The OP is a resident and a taxpayer and deserves at least a modicum of respect from Mr. Uribe, not to mention the usually-unhelpful and silent Town Council.

I would also suggest that the OP pay the balance and the fine, get your account settled, and then raise holy hell about the procedures used by the town when it does business with its taxpayers/residents.

The ad hominem in this thread is a spectacular failure -- now I wish tax collector was an elected position, as Juan Uribe would have my vote.

If they would just add the sewer tax to the property taxes all this nonsense could be done with.

eliz said:
If they would just add the sewer tax to the property taxes all this nonsense could be done with.

Best suggestion ever. It used to be this way, but the first time I encountered separate bills (in another town), I was told it was because people were including the sewer portion of their property taxes on their tax returns as a deduction, and technically that's not allowed. Geesh!

mumstheword said:
Nowhere did I read where the OP said the Town should not be paid the $13. What I understand him saying is that if there was a professional good business practices procedure in the Town to advise people when bills are not paid in full, none of this would have ensued. When any of us short-pay any of our bills, we are given a notice of some kind from the company before they lower the boom. That's just good business.
As many of you here suggest, the onus is on the OP (or, frankly, any of us) to check the tax lien sale list to see if he's on it. Seriously? Not once in all the years I lived in Maplewood (or anywhere, for that matter) did I ever check the sale list. Why would I unless I knew I owed the town any money? If that is the case, then all of you would have to check every credit card company you do business with, your mortgage companies, your cable company, and on and on each and every day to make sure you're not on their list for owing them money. And that exercise I'm sure would take a big chunk of your day to accomplish.

Yes, Mr. Uribe "did his job". But there's a difference between doing your job and doing your job dickishly, which I think is the case here. The OP is a resident and a taxpayer and deserves at least a modicum of respect from Mr. Uribe, not to mention the usually-unhelpful and silent Town Council.
I would also suggest that the OP pay the balance and the fine, get your account settled, and then raise holy hell about the procedures used by the town when it does business with its taxpayers/residents.

Government is not business. Businesses don't waive fees out of the goodness of their hearts. They do it if they think the cost of not waiving it is greater than the fee. For example, switching cable providers or brands of toilet paper. No one is going to switch towns because of a fee that they actually owe but don't want to pay. And even if they do, they'll sell to someone else, and they'll pay the taxes.

On top of all this, he is a government employee. There are LAWS that they have to adhere to. if a company rep gives you a $5 reduction in your cable bill to keep you as a customer, they are not doing anything wrong. An assessor who looks the other way about a fee that you owe is breaking the law.

BTW, it's interesting that we get Mr. Uribe's response to the OP's first letter, but not the actual letter that he sent to the assessor's office.

It makes no sense to me that the township would beat up a taxpayer over $13 when they are already paying thousands of dollars quarterly. It is obviously an oversight or misunderstanding. A polite request to the taxpayer would be in order, not lowering the boom. But that mentality seems to be missing. After all, the taxpayers of Maplewood pay the worker's salaries. The phrase that comes to mind is something about eating one's own children.

And by the way, it has always been amazing to me that the town sends out tax bills with no return envelope. Every paper bill I have ever received from a business has a return envelope included. What can the town save by being so cheap? Including it might easily cause enough of a small increase in timely compliance to defray the small cost. Apparently every business recognizes this possibility, while the town refuses to go along with Standard Operating Practice.

This thread is akin to the ones where someone was 3 minutes over their parking meter time, got a ticket for $30 or somesuch and proceeds to rant about the awful, despotic and heartless parking authority.

I don't believe that one can't fight city hall, but I also don't believe that this fight -- over $78 and city hall doing things by the book -- is worth fighting.

mrmaplewood said:
It makes no sense to me that the township would beat up a taxpayer over $13 when they are already paying thousands of dollars quarterly.

Beat up? He's being asked to pay the bill + a fine, totalling $78, as prescribed by law.

And selling a lien on the house is friendly? I call it overkill. How about starting by asking nicely instead, not bringing out the sledge hammer. He already said he will pay, but just feels the town is acting as an adversary