This is timely as FIL "forgot" to pay the taxes on the river house, and never changed his address when he moved. Luckily a neighbor at the river saw the auction notice and notified us. Got it taken care of.. but hubs still "laughs" that we should have bought it at auction.. before BIL forces the sale for "care"..
CMagnum, IRS has nothing to do with property taxes, other then you can right off the tax on your return.
County assessors website or office will have current status on taxes due. (You can call or walk in, most are very helpful and under the circumstances I'm sure they would help you get it sorted out) Do this promptly as unpaid property taxes for 3 years cause property to revert to state or county, then they can be sold at auction or for just the taxes due. I don't think they need to notify you of that process, it could happen and then someone comes knocking and dad doesn't own property any longer. Good luck.
Checking to see if property taxes are paid is easy. That's a matter of public record. You can go to your county assessor's website and type in someone's address and it say how much they paid and when.
Whoa. I sort of was. I got Mom's POAs when she was heading down the rabbit hole of dementia. Sister 2 lived with Mom but we were learning Mom couldn't handle her own affairs anymore. S2 tried hard but she has a very hard and time-consuming job. I volunteered and I was out of state.
Can your dad answer these questions? I'd start at the top and work my way down. If he's beyond knowing and the POAs don't know, I'd be terrified they're a "no". I'd be hounding siblings to call or stop in at the county/city office to find and if it hasn't get it paid ASAP. Then they must call or stop in at the insurance company and learn everything.
When I got my Mom's POAs, I called everyone--insurances, state pension, bank, etc., until I got a handle on all of Mom's affairs. If your father cannot handle his affairs, then that what his POAs must do immediately!
Edited to add after posting after freqflyer: FF has great advice!
josephine24, who is Dad's "financial Power of Attorney"? That person should be helping Dad with the bill paying chore having a checking account with both names on it, so the POA can write checks off of Dad's accounts for Dad's bills. Thus, all of your Dad's mail would be forwarded to the financial POA home, and not to Dad's home.
Go through Dad's files to see if you can fine a homeowner's insurance policy and call that insurance carrier to see they are Dad's current carrier and if yes, if he had paid on-time. You can also do the same for real estate taxes, call the County or City that handles the billing.
I know for my own Dad, his insurance carrier was the same as mine, so I was able to keep the account up-to-date. For the property taxes, I didn't even think about it [slap on forehead], so when Dad sold his house, there on the closing statement it showed the current half of taxes were not paid. My Dad had a habit of throwing out bills thinking it was junk mail... oops.
Once Dad decided to move into senior living, we didn't need to worry about those bills anymore once the house sold... whew.
"property taxes" is not even mentioned in the OP question, just taxes
County assessors website or office will have current status on taxes due. (You can call or walk in, most are very helpful and under the circumstances I'm sure they would help you get it sorted out) Do this promptly as unpaid property taxes for 3 years cause property to revert to state or county, then they can be sold at auction or for just the taxes due. I don't think they need to notify you of that process, it could happen and then someone comes knocking and dad doesn't own property any longer. Good luck.
Can your dad answer these questions? I'd start at the top and work my way down. If he's beyond knowing and the POAs don't know, I'd be terrified they're a "no". I'd be hounding siblings to call or stop in at the county/city office to find and if it hasn't get it paid ASAP. Then they must call or stop in at the insurance company and learn everything.
When I got my Mom's POAs, I called everyone--insurances, state pension, bank, etc., until I got a handle on all of Mom's affairs. If your father cannot handle his affairs, then that what his POAs must do immediately!
Edited to add after posting after freqflyer: FF has great advice!
Go through Dad's files to see if you can fine a homeowner's insurance policy and call that insurance carrier to see they are Dad's current carrier and if yes, if he had paid on-time. You can also do the same for real estate taxes, call the County or City that handles the billing.
I know for my own Dad, his insurance carrier was the same as mine, so I was able to keep the account up-to-date. For the property taxes, I didn't even think about it [slap on forehead], so when Dad sold his house, there on the closing statement it showed the current half of taxes were not paid. My Dad had a habit of throwing out bills thinking it was junk mail... oops.
Once Dad decided to move into senior living, we didn't need to worry about those bills anymore once the house sold... whew.