So I got my property tax bill when I went to the internet to pay it like I do every year, I noticed that they completely changed their website and now you have to search for your property to bring up the bill and add it to your cart to pay. However since you can also do a search by only a name, NOTHING prevents you from searching for other people's properties and pulling up their property tax bill. I was even able to pull up the bill from two of my former co-workers. The bill shows everything, account number, address, house value, whether or not it's delinquent, past year balances etc.

Granted that I think the only thing people can do is pay other people's taxes, but still, I'm sure many people wouldn't want their property tax bills just being out there.

 

tax information is public record.

 

It would definitely make me uncomfortable to know that my account number and everything is out there for everyone to see. They should make logins or something, or not show account numbers...something to have some security.

 

+1

 

why would this make you uncomfortable?

this is a good thing, now you can know whether your property is being taxed fairly or not. you should be comparing your tax bill to similar properties to see if you have a case for tax relief. and instead of going to the county office building or whatever you can do it online. (yes you can go to the county records office and see everyone's tax info + parcel maps, etc, etc)

 

It's the account number which everyone can see that makes me uncomfortable. There is no reason to put that out there. ID theft is wayyyyy too common these days and this just invites thieves to ransack your account, IMO. The more personal information you have out there, the worse off you are, especially with things such as account numbers. I'd be pretty pissed off, actually, and would call the township/city about it.

 

What account number are they posting? Your property tax account number or a bank/credit card account number? If the former, I don't think there's anything they can do with it other than pay your taxes for you. If the latter, then there is definitely reason to be concerned.

 

a tax id account number?

 

I'm sure it's just a parcel number. Nothing to worry about.

 

Yep, I think its a parcel number. Still kind of surprising that it would just be out there like that, but as long as no one can do anything with it, I guess it's OK. Maybe I'll get lucky and someone will pay my tax bill for me!

For kicks, I looked up Bow Wow's tax bill because he lives in my county as well.

 

BTW, this is why you get all those refinance offers in the mail. They search public records, find out who owns the propery, who you financed with and then send you a barage of unsolicited offers. [red][/red]

 

Correct. And its all public record. You can walk into your local town/city hall and get any info like that as well. There is nothing that could harm you in any way being there