The deadline to pay your property taxes is quickly approaching. If you plan to pay by mail, we want to remind you to double-check everything!
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And that’s really important if you’re paying taxes to the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District. For one local woman, who reached out to KPRC 2′s Help Desk, the mistake almost turned into a property tax headache, but her quick action and a bit of luck helped her avoid disaster.
Robin, a Cy-Fair ISD resident, noticed in mid-December that all of her tax payments had been cashed—except for her estate tax. Concerned, she started to worry the check might have gotten lost in the mail.
“I called the school’s tax office to find out what had happened,” Robin said. “The first thing they asked me was if I used the envelope that came with my bill, and I said ‘Yes.’ That’s when they told me the problem. The zip code was incorrect,” Robin said.
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It turned out that the envelope provided by the tax office included the wrong zip code, sending her payment to the wrong destination. Robin was understandably alarmed.
“It was a little panicky because you don’t really know what happened,” Robin explained. “I just hoped they would find it.”
To get to the bottom of the issue, KPRC 2 News reached out to the Cy-Fair ISD Tax Office, which revealed a mix-up during the notice’s production process. The tax office accidentally listed the zip code for their physical office instead of the one for their P.O. Box, which is where mailed payments should be sent.
The office is now working with the United States Postal Service (USPS) to ensure the smooth delivery of mailed checks. If your payment was returned, the tax office advises keeping the envelope with the postmark — it’s proof that you mailed your payment on time.
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Robin also made sure to warn others who might be in the same situation.
“Well, as you know, I put it on next door to try to help people,” she said. “Because I wasn’t aware of it and I just wanted to save people from being on that phone.”
In the end, Robin’s payment was processed, and the situation was resolved quickly. While she acknowledged mistakes happen, she stressed the importance of double-checking the details when mailing your payments.
“I don’t know that there’s a way to have avoided this, frankly, in this particular case, but proofreading,” Robin concluded. “Poor Cy-Fair ISD. I mean, I’m sure they’re going to get a lot of static about it. But, you know, thank goodness it’s caught and I’m sure it won’t happen again.”