Wells Fargo Pays Up For Home Tax Flap

A Montgomery County woman is stunned after learning she was late paying her property taxes even though she says she mailed the bill.

It turns out she's not alone and the one thing all of the homeowners have in common: they're all Wells Fargo customers, reported Fox 29's Michelle Buckman.

When her property taxes came in the mail, June says she sent the bill to her mortgage company to be paid through escrow. "I knew I had mailed it because I had to actually call customer service to get the address so I could mail the bill."

That was back in July. So when another letter from the Worcester Township tax collector arrived in November, she was shocked. "My taxes hadn't been paid for 2009 and there was a penalty of $618 that was being added to the bill."

June says she immediately called her mortgage company, Wells Fargo.

"First they said, they couldn't locate the bill and it looked like the township wasn't being responsive. So I called the township...that was when I found out there were other people having the same problem and it was all related to Wells Fargo mortgages."

Worcester Township property taxes were due no later than October 31. But the tax collector tells Fox 29 she didn't receive payment from 47 homeowners, all of whom pay their taxes through Wells Fargo.

"They definitely dropped the ball because not that many people could have had their tax bills lost," says June. "We weren't really getting that much response other than that they were investigating and it could take a little while."

But after Fox 29 got a hold of someone at Wells Fargo, June got another call. "Two days ago, they called and told me they did pay my taxes and they would cover the penalty."

A Wells Fargo representative told Fox 29 over the phone they never received  the bills from the township residents and in a statement added "Homeowners are legally responsible for forwarding their tax bills to their mortgage services. We worked with the local taxing authority to get copies of the bills, and made the payments owed today."

"I hope they get it straightened out by this time next year because I’ll be watching a little more carefully that everything gets paid," says June.

The Worcester Township tax collector tells Fox 29 she just received a mass payment from Wells Fargo for $309,000 - that includes the missing payments from those 47 homeowners and $28,000 worth of penalties.

A Wells Fargo spokesperson says they're not responsible for those and the money came out of each customer's escrow account. But Wells Fargo did paid June’s penalty, saying hers was a special case.