There are penalties for those individuals who leave their tax unpaid allowing it to become delinguent property tax. The good news is that there is an installment plan for people who want to redeem their property which is subject to delinguent taxes. In San Francisco this plan has a due date for the first installment which is 5 p.m. on December 10. If that date happens to fall on a weekend or a holiday the installment is not due until 5 p.m. on the following day. If it is not received by the Treasurer & Tax Collector Officer, or postmarked by the due date, the installment is then delinguent. There is a delinguent penalty incurred of 10%. The second installment is due by April 10 by t p.m. (or postmarked by that date). If it isn’t received by the Treasurer & Tax Collector Office by that time (or the next business day in case of weekend or holiday changes) it is then delinguent. A 10% penalty is also added. In addition, a $10 Administrative charge is placed on it. In genera, all supplemental tax bill installments must be paid on time or these charges and penalties have to be paid in addition to your taxes. If there are any of the taxes at all left unpaid by June 30 at 5 p.m. the property goes into default. (If June 30 happens to be on a weekend or holiday the tax installment must be paid by 5 p.m. on the previous business day.
After a tax default occurs a delinguent property tax is allowed to go unpaid for as many as five years maximum, after this it can be sold at a public auction, but even before it is offered for sale it can be obtained by a public agency. Between that time you do have the option to regain your property by paying the delinguent taxes and penalties.
A delinguent property tax can be paid by mail, by check, or money order and must have a block number and a lot number on them. The mailing address is City and County Tax Collector; Real Estate Tax; P.O. Box 7426; San Francisco, CA 94120-7426
If you are going down to pay it in person the address is City Hall – Room 140; 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlet Place; San Francisco, CA 94102 Checks, money orders, cash, and credit cards are accepted when you are paying in person. Private Issue, Discover, and Bravo are the credit cards which can be used when you are paying delinguent a property tax bill in person.
