It's like a mystery story: "The Case of the Missing House." And Utah County government turns out to be the culprit. It's up to commissioners to make things right because others are following policies that are wrong.

Clark and Euneice Brenchley built a house in Salem in 2000. They worked with the city to get all the paperwork done properly. And so far as they knew, it was. Everything seemed fine. Each month they sent a mortgage payment, including taxes, to the bank.

They did ask at one point why the taxes seemed low, but the bank reassured them that they were paying what the county wanted them to pay.

Having no information to the contrary -- no statements from the government, no letters, no phone calls -- they just did what any normal people would do and continued on happily, looking ahead to their golden years in their dream home.

Then one day, with no warning, a letter arrived from the Utah County Assessor's Office saying they owed $4,484.81 in back taxes. They were staggered.

For seven years after the house was built Utah County had failed to do its job and assess the improved property. And now the county thinks it's entitled to five years worth of taxes. It would want more, but state law prohibits going further back.

County Assessor Kris Poulson said that in rare cases new houses just fall through the cracks. "Where we miss things is new construction," he said. "Sometimes we don't get a permit from the city, and sometimes we lose a permit from the city."

Oops. That's not very reassuring news about so crucial a process. The county apparently didn't even have the Brenchleys' current address, so it couldn't inform them about anything.

It all adds up to one big, stupid government blunder. And when that happens, government should eat the loss, not stick it to some ordinary people who were acting in good faith.

The Brenchleys are not wealthy. They're retired now, on fixed incomes, worried about medical costs. A $4,500 bill really wallops people in their situation. It would wallop anybody who stretched credit and budget to build a house. Sometimes, there's not much left over, but that doesn't mean people shouldn't stretch.

Euneice Brenchley told the Herald that she has deposited the money to pay the tax bill into her checking account. Where did she get it? By dipping into her home equity resources. And that will mean a higher monthly payment on that side. She said they would have paid right along if they had known the taxes were being underpaid.

What makes this situation worse is the unconscionable hike in county taxes experienced by so many property owners in Utah County this year. Some people's assessments doubled year over year. We wouldn't be surprised to see a great many voters register their displeasure at the polls.

County commissioners could save a little face by making the Brenchley's problem go away. It's mainly the county's fault, after all, and the long delay has robbed the couple of many opportunities to solve the problem. If the Brenchleys had known the real tax bill, they could have taken action six or seven years ago to cut expenses, change living arrangements, sell a car or whatever. They could have looked at the estimated $200 a month that would be added to their house payments every month and then decided they had to sell.

Selling it almost any time in that interval would have been a better option than selling it in today's unsettled market.

But nothing was decided because they didn't know there was a problem. And Utah County was absolutely negligent in failing to notice the matter.

Five years of back taxes is simply too much to ask people to pay when it's the government's fault. State legislators should use this case to amend state law: When it's government's fault that a property is not assessed, the maximum back tax that can be collected should be one year.

Now, we don't want to hear any bureaucrats holler that it's the individual taxpayer's responsibility, and that it's therefore justifiable to demand the whole nut. Sometimes the law and common sense simply do not coincide.

This is one of those times.

Do you agree?