Property tax paid in arrears

[Don Jackson]

This seems very basic, but I'm not sure how this works.

I purchased a property at the and of August 2016 in Milwaukee. I now received the property tax bill for 2016. I've read on-line that property taxes are paid in arrears, meaning that my bill is actually for the person who owned the property in 2016. Since I only owned the property for 3 months of 2016, shouldn't the escrow company have collected 9 months of property taxes from the sale proceeds and paid that to the county? I would then only owe 3 months worth?

Am I wrong in this assumption? Please set me straight. Thanks!