Montville — Town officials are proposing to tighten an outdated tax collection policy by enforcing quicker payment of overdue taxes.

Currently, the town sends demand notices to homeowners a month after tax bills become late but doesn't issue warnings that attorneys could start foreclosure proceedings until after two years of nonpayment. The Finance Committee this week approved cutting that time frame almost in half, with officials agreeing the current policy lets residents fall behind at insurmountable levels.

"That's quite a bit of time ... and quite a bit of taxes built up, plus interest," Finance Director Theresa Hart said Tuesday night. "We're going to get more aggressive. It's caused them more grief by letting them go too long."

Hart, Tax Collector Jerl Casey and other officials have been reviewing ways to bolster the tax collection policy, which hasn't been updated in about a decade. In real estate alone, almost $4 million was owed to the town in delinquent taxes going back to 2002 before officials in May received a $1.34 million payment overdue since 2010, Casey said.

The proposed new policy emulates New London's, which pushes toward foreclosures and tax auctions more quickly and uses state marshals to deliver letters and tax warrants to homeowners who are late on their taxes.

Casey will continue to send delinquent notices by Aug. 1, a month after annual tax bills are due. But if the Town Council approves the proposed changes, Hart will send a delinquency letter to nonpaying residents by Nov. 1, and "if they don't pay in full by (the following) February, that's when the state marshal's going to get involved," Hart said. 

State marshals are paid by adding their fee to the tax bill, officials said.

If the homeowner still has not paid by May 1 — 10 months after the tax bill was due — the town will place a lien on the property and move toward selling it in a tax auction in July.

Hart said the town has held a handful of tax auctions since 2008, when she became finance director. The most recent was in 2012, when three tax-delinquent properties were sold.

New London Tax Collector Maureen Farrell said in an interview earlier this year that her city's relatively quick process "in the long run makes it easier for people to keep their property." She added that as the annual tax sale nears, more and more property owners show up and pay their bills.

Town Councilor Joe Jaskiewicz suggested Montville should remain open to letting people arrange payment plans when necessary.

"You're going from two years to 10 months," Jaskiewicz said of the push toward foreclosure proceedings. "That's a significant change. What if someone says, 'I get sick ... I can't afford to pay and want to make a payment.' That can happen to any of us."

Hart, Montville Finance Committee Chairman Wills Pike and Town Council Chairman Tom McNally said including language about payment plans opened the policy up to abuse. But they agreed the town would take extreme circumstances under consideration.

"If you call your car company or mortgage company and say, 'I've been sick and I haven't made my car payment for a few months,' they still take your car," McNally said. "I don't think any of us here are going to say to a 90-year-old with cancer that, 'You need to get out, we're going to sell your house.' We'll find a way to work with them. But if you don't enforce it, the priority's not there."

Pike argued the town had been "too casual" about delinquent tax collections for many years, and the new policy would "hold people accountable to pay their taxes. It's a change, but it's got to be done."

The Town Council meets at 7 p.m. July 9 at Town Hall.

b.kail@theday.com