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Compliance Corner #67
January 31, 2023
How to fix tax records errors
Have you ever noticed an error with a SmartMLS public record while you were entering a new listing?
Don’t worry, there’s an easy solution.
Open a Tax Search and use the Address fields to find your listing:
Make sure you are viewing the Agent- Full Public Record, then go to the first tab (Public Record) and click the blue hyperlink at the top center of the report (the same link also appears at the bottom of the report):
That opens a form that allows you to document what you think is wrong with the tax record information. Your information, as well as that of the property, will automatically populate into the form:
Use the section at the bottom of the screen to explain the exact nature of the incorrect tax information:
Click Submit when you’re done. This will send the data error report to our tax vendor, The Warren Group, for investigation and resolution.
You will get an email confirmation from SmartMLS once your error has been received. You may also receive a request for supporting documentation, such as a field card or release.
Once your error report has been received, The Warren Group researches the issue with town hall and updates the tax record accordingly. When they have made the necessary corrections in their database, the information goes to CoreLogic (the company that provides Matrix) to be updated and posted on the MLS. The tax update/corrections file is uploaded to the Matrix system once a week.
Once the error has been reported, the process takes a minimum of 10-15 business days to be corrected on Matrix. There is no need to report an error more than once. Doing so will not result in the issue being addressed any faster. In reality, it could actually prolong the process of the error getting corrected.
You will be contacted by SmartMLS when the correction has been made.
But what if you notice a problem with the tax record on another agent’s listing? Don’t worry, this process works for all tax records, even for properties listed by other agents. You do not have to be the list agent in order to report a tax data error.
Just follow the same steps in the first half of this message to report the issue and get the ball rolling on fixing the data error.
While you can always contact SmartMLS to have incorrect information fixed, we encourage you to use this link yourself because it sends an email directly to The Warren Group and immediately starts the correction process. SmartMLS staff follows these same steps to report tax data errors when an agent brings an error to our attention, so reporting it yourself speeds up the process by removing us from the equation. Reporting the error yourself can speed up the correction process by up to three days! We appreciate that time is of the essence, so please help us get these types of errors corrected for you as quickly as possible by clicking the link yourself
If you have any questions about this process, please send an email to tax@smartmls.com.
The Compliance Team values your opinions, comments and suggestions. Never hesitate to contact us at compliance@smartmls.com or (203) 750-6000.
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