Over 20,000 tax notices sent out by sheriff's office returned as 'undeliverable'

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Maybe. I wonder how many of the 25,000 are abandoned since the flood.

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I guess I never considered that possibility, but the flood happened in 2016. I don't remember a story such as this in previous years.

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Areddishfish

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You need to get out of my waters, sir.

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Authorities say the notices were mailed to the addresses on file with the assessor's office, provided by the taxpayer.

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Was their SSN 123-45-6789?

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You need to get out of my waters, sir.

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I see there are two of us in this fish tank.

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Because if your name is still on the property, it's your property right?

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Yes. If you purchase a house, even if the tax bill is in the previous owners name, you have purchased the property and by contract, you are obligated to pay the taxes.

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If it would have been sold or something the name should be different.

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Only if they registered with the clerk of court/parish assessors office. However, when you sign the mortgage/deed, you take this responsibility.

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If it is truly abandonment of all of those dwellings, I think people assumed if they ditch it they can just fall off the grid.

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There is also a high probability these properties no longer have mail boxes and are flood damaged rent properties which the owners were unable to secure funding to repair. They are probably, 1.) hoping the property gets auctioned by the sheriffs office or 2.) they are just plain refusing to pay the taxes because they are not bringing in income on those properties anymore.

They must have sent them via Amazon delivery.

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Because if your name is still on the property, it's your property right?

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You think it’s your property? Try not paying taxes and see how long the property belongs to you. It is absurd that you never really own land. It all belongs to the government and we are just leasing it.

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The SO mails tax docs on behalf of the Assessor's office in all LA parishes?

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Not exactly. The sheriff IS the Parish tax collector on his own and just collects the amount of tax that the law says that he is to collect. I think that somewhere in the state's constitution, there's language that makes the sheriff the official tax collector in each parish. The assessor and his office are typically responsible for keeping a regularly updated record of property values and actually calculating the amount of tax owed based on the millages and property values.

I guess it makes some sense because the sheriff has the gun and the authority to use it to force you to pay your taxes, sell some of your property to pay owed taxes, etc. A sheriff in Louisiana is a pretty powerful person.

ETA: Yeah, the constitution says that the sheriff is the tax collector, except in Orleans Parish.

Short and to the point

When I lived in BR the post office was horribly incompetent.