Final figures aren’t in yet, but Screven County collected at least $500,000 in delinquent taxes through newspaper notices in recent weeks and a sale of property at the courthouse Tuesday.
Three-quarters of the more than 200 properties that originally were listed in newspaper notices were brought up to date or put on payment plans before the sale Tuesday, said Tax Commissioner David Long.
The sale is the first of its kind held in the county in several years, clearing properties that had taxes due from as long ago as 2001. Long said he plans to have regular delinquent tax sales, possibly as often as twice a year, to keep the backlog from getting so large. He said the county may hold another sale in September.
About 50 people signed up to bid on properties in the courtroom. The auction, which lasted less than two hours, included 31 pieces of “real property,” or land with or without buildings, and 18 mobile homes with no land included. Of those, seven pieces of real property and five mobile homes did not sell.
Long said the properties that did not sell likely will be offered again in another auction, possibly in September.
Were there bargains to be had? “Oh yes, several bought land under $1,000 an acre, or even less,” Long said. The owners of the real property that was purchased have a one-year right of redemption. During that time they can buy back the property for the auction amount plus 20 percent. The 20 percent premium goes to the person who bought the property at auction.
The mobile homes that sold without land do not have a redemption period; those sales are final.
Long said the 13 mobile homes that sold will clean up that many eyesores in the county. He said some of the buyers have said they will sell them for scrap metal or parts.
Long said many attempts were made to contact the owners of the properties before they were auctioned and he knows of no little old ladies being unexpectedly thrown out in the cold. Some of the properties were inheritances that were in the hands of multiple relatives who couldn’t agree on what to do with the land or how to pay the taxes and were happy to let it go.
Long said the crowd was bigger than he expected. “I was sorry to have to sell anything, but I was pleased there was a crowd,” he said.
The properties were offered for sale for the back taxes and fees. The largest piece of land was a 20-acre, vacant parcel in White Hill, which sold for $20,200.
One parcel that sold was an acre of land owned in the name of a church. Long said a group of people who wanted to form a church bought the land years ago but their plans fell through and the church was never created. He said there were ownership problems because the group disbanded years ago and that selling the land at auction is a way the property can be cleared so that someone else can use it.
Long didn’t immediately have a totals for how much the property and mobile homes sold for in the auction.
After the back taxes and fees are paid, any additional money raised in the auction goes to the property owners, Long said.