Well…here we go again! Several years ago I received non-stop tax lien letters for minerals I don’t own. Dealing with the Reeves County Tax Office by phone was impossible. But I FINALLY figured out that a different Elizabeth Harris (my name) owns the minerals they’d sent liens on. She lives in Arkansas. I’m in Oklahoma. At some point, I was assured by Reeves County that the mix-up was corrected and later I was sent an apology letter. Today, I received yet another tax lien letter on her minerals from the attorneys’ office in San Antonio. I’m literally at my wit’s end. Has a class action lawsuit been discussed? This constant harassment and dereliction of duty is municipal bullying. At best, it is incompetency on taxpayers’ dime. Hiring attorneys for bogus liens is costly. Why does this continue to happen?
If you don’t own these interest(s) you have ZERO liability. This taxing authority has no power over you whatsoever.
I guess my concern is that Reeves County’s ineptitude at record keeping will affect the production I ACTUALLY own and punctually pay taxes on. Obviously those are separate wells (Kingfisher A & B) than the interest wrongly assigned to me (Leopard Unit). I have substantial holdings in the Kingfisher wells and fear the tax office will stupidly blend information. Their inability to correct basic information tells me they are capable of enacting all kinds of mistakes.
I looked at the Reeves CAD site for taxes due and I can see the issue. All the accounts under EH are paid except for one, which is the Leopard Unit 5A51 back tax of $15.74 for year 2021. That account 302605 still has your OK address listed. EH in Arkansas has two accounts (340492 and 401104) at her Arkansas address and those taxes are paid up to date. So the address update only applied to the future tax statements and was not changed for the 2021 taxes. Unless EH Ark checks the CAD website and opens the 2021 taxes due detail, she has no way to know that the taxes are not fully paid. She clearly paid all 2022 taxes on the Leopard wells. Below is a link to the CAD page for the unpaid 2021 tax. Send a letter to Reeves CAD noting that the they failed to update the address for Account 302605 and be the same as Accounts 340492 and 401104 and that notices are being sent to the wrong mineral owner. Include a copy of the apology letter and the tax due page with the bad address. Copy EH Ark on the letter and send it to her. That way she can pay her 2021 tax and not lose her minerals. Reeves County Appraisal District
Yes, here we go again. We got erroneous tax lien/threat letters from both the Perdue Law firm, who collects for Balmorhea ISD, and McCrary, Veselka, who collects for everyone else. So far (and its early), we have found:
- The 2022 and 2020 tax year notices have been paid;
- They misapplied part of one payment from our partnership to another similarly named partnership out of Ft. Worth (unaffiliated). We have applied for a refund.
- We noticed these accounts on the website last year and sent them a detailed, certified mail letter, enclosing all the paid tax receipts. It got ignored and turned over to the law firms anyway. We never got a response to our letter, of course.
- I have left message to the contacts in the McCreay, Veselka notice. No response.
I was starting to think Reeves CAD was finally getting their fiasco under control, but apparently not.
Not to add to the bad news, but the new chief appraiser Shawn Davis, has resigned. They are searching for a new chief appraiser.
Wade, there’s an egregious (bordering on clownish) disregard for any semblance of legal procedure. As suggested by Tennis Daze in the comments, I gathered documentation of my correspondence over the years. I called the Reeves County Tax Dept. Myra (sp?) suggested that I email the Interim Chief Appraiser, explain the circumstances and send attachments of the documentation. I did that. His email is eagle.garyz at yahoo. Additionally, Sandra called me back after receiving my message last week. She seemed to have found where they actually updated the correct owner’s name on the website, but had left the mailing address (for tax bills) as MY address in Oklahoma. She promised to try to get the right people on the task. So…you might try sending an email to Gary Zeitler, the Interim Chief Appraiser with all your information. Plus…ask for Sandra. She appeared better equipped to trouble-shoot. But, it remains to be seen if anything gets corrected! Good luck. Keep me informed. Liz
I’d answered you earlier, thanking you for the detailed instructions. Yet, they didn’t get posted. So sorry. And thanks, again!
UPDATE - Yes Sandra Soto has now been responsive, and McCreary, Veselka has responded. Making some progress. Still not understanding how they could not respond to multiple, detailed, certified mail letters form a law firm telling them exactly where the errors are that need to be looked at. Probably overwhelmed still cleaning up the prior mess, but at some point you expect them to get caught up enough that they can respond. It is to their benefit to clean these issues up anyway.
I hope they’re FINALLY straightening out the avalanche of missteps. I’ve yet to hear back from them, after being told they’re working on it. My fingers are crossed.
I have received a tax bill for 2020 in the amount the amount of $260.72. What is the difference between an account number and my Owner number? This is very confusing to me because I am really a novice at interpreting this information. The problem was compounded by the fact that in 2020 Reeves county was still sending tax bills to my Former address. When I realize the mistake, I change the address, but unfortunately I did not receive the 2020 tax bill. I rectified the mistake as soon as I realized about the errant address, but it was not changed until 2022 when I went on the site that you said that you suggested for getting information about tax owed in Reeves county, I saw today that the address is still the same, and my 2024 tax bill went to that address! I had changed the address with Capital Appraisal and with Reeves County Tax assessors office. Could you explain the difference between my owner number and the account number? In the past you have been a great help to me.Glenda
The owner id number is assigned to your name for the entire bill and all minerals / wells will be billed to you as an owner. For each well (MN), your owner id is the same. However, each well will have its own property id account number and geographic id number. The same system is used for surface interests. However, the owner id for surface will not be the same as the owner id for wells. For this reason, it is better to search under your name. Two Warnings for you. First, on Reeves CAD site, your minerals all have an address in TN. Your surface interest has an address that says “USA”. You need to correct this. Second, on Reeves TAX DUE site, under your name, the taxes on your surface are overdue for multiple years and no mailing address. Nine wells have back taxes due for 2020 and 2021. Those minerals all have an address in FL. I used Salley to search. Here is the TAX DUE website - https://reeves.propertytaxpayments.net/
UPDATE - Reeves has hired a new chief appraiser, Clayton Snyder who was with Shackelford County (my hometown by the way). I am seeing definite improvement in reducing new issues and resolving back issue with Reeves CAD.
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