Mystery Surrounds Disappearance Of County Real Estate Tax Payments As 77 Fort Lauderdale- Area Property Owners Get Hit With Delinquency Notices

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports:

• Seventy-seven Broward property owners paid their taxes last November but got a piece of mail no taxpayer wants to receive — a delinquent tax notice. They say they were among the victims of a mysterious disappearance of property tax payments mailed by diligent property owners last fall. The checks just vanished.
  
  
• Broward officials say the tally of missing checks is at 1,075 now — the last 77 of which were discovered after the delinquent tax notices went out. Taxpayers who hadn’t noticed until now that their checks never were deposited by the county face a steeper climb to clear up the problem, and the stakes are higher.
  
  
• If the taxes aren’t paid by May 22, the delinquent tax bill can carry an interest rate up to 18 percent, or, the notice warns ominously, “your property may be sold at a later date.’’ [...] “There are legitimate people who are just now finding this out, for whatever reason,’’ said Claudio Manicone, operations manager in the county’s tax and deeds department.
  

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• Broward officials determined earlier this year that hundreds of checks mailed in November never made it to their destination.

For more, see More victims of missing-check-gate surface in Broward.