Being Sued
I was going to do a post about Thanksgiving, then I realized that it was a totally boring long weekend. It was a good weekend. I enjoyed my time with friends, and Kiara, but nothing too horribly exciting happened, so I won’t bore you with the details.
Instead, I’m going to write about a letter that I received the day before Thanksgiving….
On Tuesday, November 21st, I received a notice in the mail that there was a certified letter waiting for me at the post office. I left work early on the 22nd to go to the post office (which turned out to be a small trailer in a strip mall parking lot.) Once there, I signed for the letter, and I noticed that it was from a law firm based out of Austin, TX. This got me concerned since I have an uncle that lives in Austin. I was afraid something had happened to him.
I immediately tore open the letter while still in the parking lot next to the trailer. It was from the Midland Central Appraisal District. They were suing everyone listed in my grandfather’s will for back taxes, court costs, and administrative fees. I knew this day would come, again. I had to deal with this same mess back in 2005, and it’s time to deal with it again.
You see, my father is a huge fuck up. He’s irresponsible, immature, and has zero drive to make a better life for himself. He’s always ridden on the coat-tails of my grandfather, and even 3 years after my grandfather’s death, he’s still coasting along doing much of nothing good for himself.
My father has not paid taxes on any of the eleven properties that are still left in the will. He waits to be sued, sells a property, pays the taxes, and pockets the rest of the money. What should be happening is the total sale of all properties, and that money should be split six ways according to my grandfather’s will.
I’m not sure if there is anything that I can do to rectify the situation. I don’t have the money to pay the taxes myself. Even if I did, it would only be a band-aid on a sucking chest wound. We’d be right back here next year.
The letter said that I had to be in Texas within 20 days of signing for the letter, but I did manage to get in touch with the appraisal district’s lawyer, and she told me the she could mail me a form to send back instead of taking time off work, and traveling to Texas to get things resolved. I told her to go ahead and do that. Now I’m here waiting for that letter, and I hope that it doesn’t include language like “the signer of this letter agrees to pay all back taxes by X date.”
I just wish that my father would get his shit together long enough to take care of things permanently. I’m thinking that the only way I’ll get things taken care of is to wait for my father (and then my uncle) to kick the bucket, so that I’ll be the next executor of the will. Then I can sell off the houses (if there are any left) and split the money with my brothers.
