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| A Michigan-based mortgage company erroneously notified 1,000 Florida homeowners that they were delinquent on their property taxes — posting the tax collector’s name and mailing address in the letter.
“Numerous calls…from Hillsborough county taxpayers” alerted the tax collector’s office to the letter, office spokeswoman Dana Dove said in an e-mailed statement. The letter contained the tax collector’s name and the office’s P.O. box. Cranbrook Mortgage Corp., which has previously advertised itself as a mortgage broker and a lender, said in an announcement it intended to help Hillsborough County taxpayers avoid tax liens — and possibly foreclosures. However, in sifting through Hillsborough property records, Cranbrook said it mistakenly cross-referenced the “paid” and “unpaid” fields. The letters were sent to the first 1,000 people on the list, causing some residences to receive a letter by mistake, said Cranbrook President Michael Ayoub in an apology letter to the Hillsborough County Tax Collector’s Office. He noted that this was the company’s first attempt to market to tax lien records, and it would discontinue posting the office’s name or the names of officials on any advertisements or solicitations in and outside of Florida. Ayoub said apology letters had been distributed to each resident who received the letter in error. “We understand that this has caused inconvenience for the residence and the county and we would like to offer our sincerest apologies,” the Warren, Mich.-based company’s president said. “This mistake is a big embarrassment to myself and my staff,” he added. |
Coco Salazar is an assistant editor and staff writer for MortgageDaily.com. email: [email protected]
