Your first tax bill on the coast. Check it before your escrow does.

About a year after closing, a lot of new owners on this coast open a letter from their mortgage servicer that says the monthly payment is going up. The rate is fixed. What changed is the property tax, and the escrow account that pays it was set up off a bill that was never going to be yours.

This is the season to catch it, because the bills are landing right now on both sides of the state line.

Two calendars, eight minutes apart

In Alabama, the Department of Revenue puts the lien date on October 1, with taxes due the following October 1. In plain terms, the bill you pay this fall covers the year that just ended. Baldwin County’s Revenue Commission says real property taxes are due October 1 and delinquent after December 31, with penalties and interest after that.

In Florida, the bill comes with a discount for paying early. Under Florida Statute 197.162, it’s 4 percent in November, 3 percent in December, 2 percent in January and 1 percent in February. Escambia County’s Tax Collector treats unpaid taxes as delinquent April 1. If you pay your own Florida taxes, November is the cheapest month.

If your taxes are escrowed, the servicer pays the bill for you. Baldwin County still says it plainly: it’s the owner’s job to confirm with the mortgage company that the taxes were paid.

Why the old bill lies to you

At closing, the lender estimates your taxes, usually off the most recent bill. That bill reflects the seller’s situation, not yours. Three ways it goes wrong around here:

The seller had an exemption you don’t. Alabama exemptions follow the owner, not the house. Some of the age 65 and over exemptions in Baldwin County cut the bill a lot, and one of them exempts the property from all taxes. If the seller qualified and you don’t, last year’s bill is a number from somebody else’s life. You also have to file your own homestead claim. In Baldwin County that’s before December 31 of the year you bought.

You’re using the house differently than the seller did. If the seller lived there, the house was likely assessed as owner-occupied at 10 percent of value. If it’s your second home or a rental, it moves to the 20 percent class. Same house, roughly double the tax line.

The house is brand-new. Alabama assesses property on its status as of October 1, and new improvements have to be reported to the Revenue Commission. Depending on when the house was finished, the first bill can reflect the lot more than the house. Your escrow was built on that smaller number, and the full house shows up a cycle later. Ask the Revenue Commission what’s on the roll for your parcel, and make sure the house was reported by December 31.

The Florida version, worked

The biggest jump on our stretch of coast usually happens on the Florida side, because of Save Our Homes. A Florida homestead’s assessed value can only rise by 3 percent or the change in the Consumer Price Index each year, whichever is lower. Over a long ownership, that leaves the assessed value far below market.

The cap doesn’t transfer to you. Florida Statute 193.155 says the property is reassessed at just value as of January 1 of the year after a change of ownership.

An illustration, not a quote on any real house, using the Escambia County Tax Collector’s 2025 rates for unincorporated Perdido Key, 13.4035 mills, of which 5.3590 is the school levy. Those rates shift a little every year.

• The seller held homestead for years, and the assessed value sits at $250,000. After the homestead exemption, their bill runs about $2,815.
• You buy at a price that matches a just value of $500,000 and file your own homestead. Your bill runs about $6,165.
• That’s roughly $3,350 a year more, or about $280 a month.

The timing makes it worse. Your first November bill still carries the seller’s assessed value, because the reset happens the following January. The jump lands a full year later.

If it’s a second home with no homestead, the same $500,000 runs about $6,700.

What the escrow rules actually say

Federal rules under RESPA, at 12 CFR 1024.17, set the limits on how your servicer can fix this.

• The servicer has to analyze your escrow account every year.
• It can hold a cushion of up to one-sixth of the year’s estimated escrow payments. When your tax goes up, the cushion goes up with it, so your payment increase is usually more than the tax increase alone.
• If the account comes up short by one month’s escrow payment or more, the servicer can leave it alone or spread the repayment over at least 12 months.
• If the account actually ran negative paying the bill, that’s a deficiency, and the rule only requires the repayment be spread over two or more months. Ask for twelve.
• If there’s a surplus of $50 or more, it has to be refunded within 30 days.

What to do this fall

1. Pull your bill. Look up your parcel on the county site, Baldwin County Revenue Commission or the Escambia County Tax Collector, and confirm it’s paid or scheduled.
2. Check the name and exemptions. Is your homestead on it? Is anybody else’s exemption still on it?
3. Compare it to your escrow. Your annual escrow statement shows what the servicer expected to pay for taxes. If the gap is big, call them now, not after the letter.
4. On the Florida side, run next year. Ask the property appraiser for the just value and estimate what your bill looks like after the reset. Set the difference aside monthly so the letter doesn’t hurt.

Nothing here is tax advice, and your county’s office has the final word on your parcel. The tax will be what it will be. It’s just easier to plan for in October than to meet in a letter.

If you bought recently and want somebody to look at your bill and your escrow with you, call or text me at (251) 597-5809. No pressure, just honest numbers. I answer my phone.