County collector to hold land tax sale at courthouse

An estimated 60 parcels will be up for auction; most won't attract a single bid.

By Mark Bliss ~ Southeast Missourian

JACKSON, Mo. -- Tax deadbeats could see their land sold at a courthouse auction Monday if they don't pay up.

The Cape Girardeau County collector's office annually auctions off properties in which the owners are at least two years delinquent in paying their real estate taxes. Even if the land is sold, the tax-delinquent owner has up to two years to pay up and get back the property.

In late July, 115 properties totaling more than $145,000 in back taxes and penalties were listed for sale, down from the nearly 400 that were on the books back in May. The number has continued to drop in recent weeks as more owners have paid back taxes. Still more will pay before the sale, said Diane Diebold, county collector.

Many of the delinquent taxpayers are habitually late in paying their taxes. "Probably half the people on the list do it every year," she said.

Diebold estimates that about 60 parcels will be up for auction at 10 a.m. Monday on the county courthouse steps in Jackson. Most won't attract a single bid.

Bidders bought 19 of 68 tracts of land at last year's sale, some for as little as the price of delinquent taxes. In other cases, bidding forced up the sale price. The annual sale netted $9,769 for the county. Five of the 19 tracts have been redeemed by the tax-owning owners.

Under Missouri law, land sold at the annual collector's sale can be redeemed within two years after the sale. The owner must pay the land sale price plus interest to the person who bought the property at auction.

The interest amounts to 10 percent the first year and 8 percent the second year.

If the real estate sold for more than the taxes and penalties owed, the county will refund the surplus to the owners should they pay their debts, Diebold said.

Those who have winning bids on debt-ridden land hold the tax liens. "For two years, you can't do anything but keep the taxes paid," she said.

The winning bidders don't get ownership to the land until they receive collector's deeds. That can't happen until after the owners have been given time to redeem the land.

Even then, it's best to go to court to get clear title to the land, said regular bidder Danny Stratton of Oak Ridge, Mo.

Stratton has bid at the annual sale since 1994. He currently owns 22 mostly vacant lots, most of them in the city of Cape Girardeau.

He spent less than $300 to buy two vacant lots last year -- one in Jackson and the other in Cape Girardeau. So far, those two lots haven't been redeemed.

Stratton said he keeps all his vacant lots mowed. "That is my idea of a good time," he said.

He said his land purchases have yet to pay off. He hopes to eventually sell some of the lots.

"It is kind of a hobby. I am not trying to make a lot of money," said Stratton.

Stratton's never visited one wooded area near Pocahontas, Mo., that he bought on the courthouse steps. "It's just a patch of woods along a creek," he said. Taxes on the land amount to less than $5 a year, he said.

Most of the real estate tax debts in Cape Girardeau County are on weed-strewn, vacant lots and tracts with dilapidated buildings. "They are junk," Diebold said. In many cases, they're not worth the cost of cleaning up the property, she said.

Still, the annual land sales do encourage people to pay their back taxes, Diebold said.

Diebold said her only interest in selling land is to collect taxes. "I'm not in the business of taking people's property away," she said.

Those who pay their taxes late are paying a stiff penalty. The county charges interest on the taxes of 2 percent a month, up to a maximum of 18 percent a year. In addition, there's a 5 percent penalty that will be raised to 7 percent under a new state law that takes effect on Aug. 28.

Diebold said her office, for accounting conveniences, won't start levying the higher penalty until Sept. 1.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123