Harris County Tax Collector Screws Up In Filing Delinquent Tax Foreclosure Suit Against Active Duty Servicemember; Law Firm Admits Error

In Houston, Texas, KHOU-TV Channel 11 reports on the story of U.S. Air Force Captain Jose Iraheta who, with his family, live in northwest Harris County. They own a home, but he doesn’t spend much time here as he spends most of his time overseas, flying planes high above places like Iraq and Afghanistan. He reportedly had a real estate tax issue that he recently had to deal with.

• [L]uckily for Capt. Iraheta, he knew about [...] a law in Texas that allows people on active military duty like him to defer paying their property taxes. They have until after they’re discharged or otherwise living back home. So Capt. Iraheta filled out the forms and postponed paying his taxes.

• But there was a problem, and the captain found out about it in a most troubling way. He said while he was off fighting a war, Harris County decided to sue him. “I got sued,” Capt. Iraheta said. The county sent him a citation, saying he owed $7,000 in back taxes plus $3,000 attorneys fees and penalties. To collect it, the county said it would sell his house in a foreclosure sale.

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• Suing soldiers over property taxes is against Texas law, and so is trying to charge them extra fees. So how’d it happen? The mistake is traced to downtown Houston law firm Linebarger, Goggan Blair and Sampson. Harris County uses it to collect unpaid taxes, and the law firm now admits it was all a big mistake.

For more, see While serving his country, Air Force captain was sued by Harris County.