January 18,2010 Dear UEP Property Occupant

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January 18,2010
Dear UEP Property Occupant:
First, I would like to outl ine for you how the Trust will manage property tax payments for 2010.
In order to assure that the 2010 property tax on the parcel you are occupying is paid in a timely
manner, we are instituting a monthly assessment beginning January 2010. It is very
important that you understand that this is separate from the monthly $100 assessment, which was
authorized by the Court for the purpose of paying the administrative fees of the Trust and not for
the payment of property tax. Because the Trust will be escrowing the monthly tax assessment,
beginning this month, and paying the tax to the County later in the year, you are required to pay
this assessment directly to the UEP Trust. You should recognize this advanced payment system
because it was the system used by the prior Trustees' until 2005.
The new assessment represents III 0 of the estimated amount of the property tax that will be due
later in the fall to Washington County/Mohave County. You are expected to pay the monthly
assessment, in addition to any amount still owing on prior years' tax and administrative
assessments, as indicated on the attached statement.
Additionally, let me clarify how you may pay remaining 2009 taxes. As was allowed in 2008, the
payment of any 2009 tax may be paid directly to the County, except those parcels where there
has been a tax lien sale. There is more detail on this situation in a later part of this letter. If you
DO pay your 2009 tax directly to the County Assessor, you must also send a copy of the
county receipt to: UEP, PO Box 959, Colorado City, AZ 86021.
Next, I would like to clarify the purpose of the surcharge that was added last year. In December
2009, I informed you that there would be a 2% surcharge added to your 2009 property tax
allocation. This assessment is to cover the tax on shared and unoccupied property parcels for
both current and prior years, which are owned by the Trust. As you can see from the attached
statement, the 2% surcharge has been added to the 2009 billings and to the monthly 2010
assessments mentioned above. As you may remember, the prior Trustees made selective
assessments to residents of the community to cover these common properties in past years.
I would also like to explain the circumstances that lead to the 2005 shortfall. In 2005, the
advance monthly payments that were made were not remitted to the County or to me as the new
Special Fiduciary. It was March of 2006, while discussing the property tax issues with the
County Treasurer that I first discovered that these 2005 tax assessments had not been paid. At
that point all the property taxes in Washington County/Mohave County were officially
delinquent for 2005. I then made special assessments for the 2005 tax and endeavored to collect
the assessment from each occupant of Trust property. I still do not know what happened to the
money that was paid in advanced assessments for 2005 taxes in the months prior to November
2005. It is possible that these payments were diverted to other uses by the prior Trustees.
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January 18,2009
Page 2
Furthermore, as mentioned above there are delinquent taxes that exist. There are some parcels in
which the 2007 delinquent taxes were sold to individuals in the annual tax lien sale in Mohave
County. Those tax liens can be redeemed by the Trust at anytime within three years from the date
of the tax lien sale. That means that no Trust property is at risk of being sold for liens until
February 2011. It is the intent of the Trust to redeem the tax liens prior to any sale, by one of
three means: 1) the collection of any late tax assessments on any occupant, 2) the 2% surcharge
(explained above), or 3) the sale of nonresidential property of the Trust.
Because of these delinquent accounts, it is more important than ever to have an accurate
accounting of the taxes you have paid. If you paid the County Treasurer directly and did not send
the Trust a copy of your receipt, it is possible that we have not given you credit for your
payments. The County Treasurer in Mohave County has graciously supplied us with a list of
those who have paid prope11y taxes, but it has been difficult to identify some of the payments.
Please look closely at the attached statement and communicate with us if you have made
payments that are not reflected on our records.
For those of you who have tax liens purchased against the parcel that you are occupying, it will
not be possible for you to make payments of the current year ' s taxes without redeeming the tax
lien by paying all delinquent taxes and any fees and interest. It will therefore be necessary to pay
your taxes to the Trust, where the payments will be escrowed and accumulated until the tax lien
can be redeemed .
And finally, there have also been misrepresentations as to the status and the purpose of the $100
occupancy fee that was instituted on January 1, 2008. As I stated above this fee was authorized
by the Cou11 for the purpose of paying the administrative fees of the Trust. Many of you chose to
pay the fee to your FLDS leaders and those leaders made bulk payments to the Utah Attorney
General ' s Office, with no individual accounting of who paid the fee and who did not. There were
bulk payments made to the Attomey General's Office, on January 1,2009, June 6, 2009 and July
28, 2009. There have been no bulk payments made since then. Because there was no accounting
for which occupants paid their fees to the FLDS leaders, we have had to guess on the status of
your payments. Your statement was sent earlier in the month and may have indicated what
our records show you owing the Trust for occupancy fees. If your records indicate
something different, please contact us with documentation of your payments.
Bruce R. Wisan
Special Fiduciary
Attachments