Maine Municipal Tax Collectors' & Treasurers' Association
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Posted by Barbara O'Leary, Northport, August 15, 2008:First of all, thank you to everyone who responded to my question regarding payments in lieu of taxes.  It was very helpful!! Now, what do other towns charge for property information, if you do?  I'm talking about appraisers, realtors, mortgage companies,  etc who call, email and fax property information requests daily.  Northport currently does not have a policy for this, but feel the time has come.  We are a two person office and this is a good part of our day. 

Response: We don't charge for lookups. We request they fax us any requests over 3, and we do it when we can.  If they have over 10 we let them come in and use a computer.   We'll hopefully have an online service up and running this winter, which will cut down dramatically on phone calls.   You're right, the phone calls take up a huge part of the day, but I don't see an easy way of charging for that, and its information they have to have in order to pay the bill correctly. (Sue Borelli, South Portland)

The Town of Washington insist that appraisers, realtors, mortgage companies, etc come into the office and research the info independently.  We also do not fax info regarding property.  We are a 2 person office and this has helped tremendously by freeing up time that we can spend with our customers at the window. (Town of Washington)

The Town of Morrill agrees with this request.  We are also a small town, with limited help.  We would also appreciate it if individuals would come to the office instead of requesting information over the phone and threw the fax. (Town of Morrill)

The Town of Ashland also does not charge for this service, only if copies are made.  We do look things up if someone calls, can be a bit time consuming and there are only 2 people in this office, too.  If we are in the middle of something with a customer, then we tell the caller to call back.  If they come in the office, they can look the info up themselves. (Kathi Beaulieu, Ashland)

The Town of Wells does not currently charge for this service. Bit, good idea to think about. (Leo Ouellette, Wells)

The Town of Readfield charges if we make copies and/or fax. Tax are public knowledge and I don't think we can charge for information that is available. It might fall under the freedom of access law.  Unless it take more then an hour to put together, then you can charge $10.00 per hours.  It's our jobs as clerks to provide the information in a timely manner if it is requested.  So we can put the request off for just a short time but we do have to provide the information.  We are the Trio system and are able to e-mail at no charge and it only takes a minute to do it. We ask the requester to e-mail their request and we hit the reply button and attach the tax information sheet to the e-mail.  Works for us! (Robin Lint,Readfield)

The Town of Chelsea does charge $2 for all inquiries of two or more. We also have them fax or mail the request and we get to it when we can. We also have them include a self address, stamped envelope or charge to fax it back. We are a two person office and this has helped with local realtors and appraisers. We also only provide the information that is available in our computer system, we do not pull cards or maps. Should they want more information they must come into the office themselves.
Maybe I'm wrong, but don't realtors and appraisers get paid for getting this information? (Carol Belanger, Chelsea)

This is an excellent answer and any concerns to the Right to Know Law should be referred back to the Right to Know Law Packet (SECTION V1. INSPECTION AND COPYING OF PUBLIC RECORDS) or MMA them selves. (Town of Morrill)

The City of Bangor charges $4.00 per account for tax information.  We require the request be faxed to us and we bill them for the fee.  The $4.00 fee has been in effect since December of 1995.  The information is free if the request is made in person or they can also look up the information themselves for free in the office.  The City does not and has no plans to provide information on-line.  The fee is meant to recoup our staff time and expenses.  Some years we have had over 4,000 requests.  It has dropped a little in the last couple years as the bigger companies; Wells Fargo and First American now purchase a disk of our entire tax database and do their own research.  The disk or emailed file costs $40.00.  Before that we would get one request that contained up to 200 or 300 accounts. (David Little, Bangor)

How do you get around the "first hour for free" requirement in the FOIA? (Ryan Pelletier, St. Agatha)