Legal Question in Real Estate Law in New Jersey

Re: repayment of mortgage re-finance qts. taxes

There are a couple of things that you could try, although these are not necessarily solutions based upon statutes, but simply a couple of practical solutions.

1. You can contact your mortgage company, explain the situation, and see if they would be willing to help you by sending the required letter to the tax authority. If you provide them with the proof of overpayment, they may be willing to assist you, since they did participate in the "double payment".

2. More importantly, if your attorney refuses to answer your phone calls or has not returned messages to you for over three months, he has almost certainly violated the code of legal ethics in his/her state. I might suggest that, in your next message to him, you state that, if he does not return your call within two days, you will be forced to contact the disciplinary committee of the local bar association to file a complaint. Generally, if a lawyer is being actively delinquent, such a message would elicit a phone response. If you do not get one, contact the local bar for more information about making such complaint.

3. If taxes are coming due for the first quarter, at this point it may be better to simply have the overpayment applied to the next quarter, notify your mortgage company and work out an arrangement for them to refund you the money.

I really feel that you should pursue your attorney on this matter, since he/she is being extremely unprofessional. The state bars are the only "higher authority" of which you speak. No individual can force a lawyer to do something, but getting him in trouble with the bar may speed up the process, and they can CERTAINLY force him to do something.

I hope this information has helped you. Please do not hesitate to contact me via e-mail with any further questions.

Best regards,

John Galluccio

Re: repayment of mortgage re-finance qts. taxes

I agree with the first attorneys recommendation. If this was a NJ transaction, what I would do is contact the local Bar Association to further help in reporting this attorneys conduct, if he does not return your calls again.