Yes, where the loan has an escrow account: the servicer collects a twelfth of the projected annual property tax and homeowners insurance with each monthly payment and pays the county and the insurer directly when the bills fall due, though the bill is still addressed to you and the payment is still yours to verify.
Two accounts get called escrow and only one of them does this. The escrow that holds a purchase together closes when the deed records. The escrow account on a mortgage runs for as long as the loan does, and its whole job is to turn two or three large annual bills into a line on the monthly payment. Knowing which bills it covers, and which it does not, is most of the question.
How the money moves
At closing the lender funds the account with a few months of deposits, then adds a monthly amount to the payment. The servicer projects what property tax and homeowners insurance will cost over the coming year, divides by twelve, and holds the result until each bill is due. When the county's instalment date arrives the servicer pays the treasurer; when the policy renews it pays the insurer. Nothing about the arrangement changes who owes the tax. It changes who writes the cheque.
The projection is a forecast, so it is reconciled once a year in the escrow analysis and the monthly deposit is reset. That is why the deposit part of a payment moves while principal and interest on a fixed-rate loan do not.
You still get the bill, and it is worth reading
The county assesses tax against the owner, not the lender, so the bill or a copy marked for information still reaches you. It is the only document that shows what the county actually charged, as opposed to what the servicer projected, and the two are not always the same number. Reading it is how an escrow shortage gets caught in July rather than discovered in a statement the following spring.
Here the Clark County Treasurer's real property tax inquiry shows a parcel's current bill, the four instalments and what has been paid against each one, which is the check that the servicer's payment landed. Property tax is the lien that outranks the mortgage, so an unpaid instalment matters to the lender more than to anyone, but a servicer transfer or a wrong parcel number can still let one slip.
What happens when the insurance changes
Switching insurer does not close the escrow account, but the servicer has to be told. It pays whichever policy it has a declaration page for, so the new insurer's declarations and the mortgagee clause naming the servicer are what has to reach it before the renewal date. The old insurer refunds the unearned premium, and where that premium came out of escrow the refund belongs back in the account rather than to the owner.
A gap in that handover is the origin of most force-placed insurance: the servicer cannot see a live policy, buys one that protects only its own interest, costs several times a normal premium, and charges it to the escrow account. It is reversible on proof of continuous coverage, and the reversal is a lot of phone calls.
What an escrow account does not pay
HOA dues are not escrowed. The association bills the owner directly, monthly or quarterly, and a missed payment is between the owner and the association, with its own lien and its own remedies under Nevada's common-interest community statute. Lenders count HOA dues when they qualify a borrower and leave them out of the payment they collect, which is why the mortgage statement and the true monthly cost of a home in a Las Vegas master-planned community are different numbers.
The same goes for utilities, special assessments levied by an association, and in most cases flood or earthquake policies bought separately unless the servicer required them. Where a home has solar or a PACE-style assessment on the tax bill, that part does run through escrow, because it arrives as part of the county's charge.
Questions people ask
Is homeowners insurance paid through escrow?
On a loan with an escrow account, yes, on the same mechanism as the tax: the servicer collects a twelfth of the annual premium each month and pays the insurer at renewal. The owner still chooses the insurer and still has to send the servicer the declaration page.
What happens if the servicer does not pay the property tax on time?
Penalties and interest attach to the parcel, and the servicer is generally responsible for making the account whole where the failure was its own. Regulation X requires a servicer to pay escrowed items on time as long as the borrower's payments are current, so the first step is showing the payment history.
Do you still get a property tax bill if you have escrow?
In most counties yes, either the bill itself or a copy stamped for information only while the original goes to the lender. Clark County posts the current bill and payment status on the treasurer's parcel inquiry regardless of who is paying it.