From a lengthy article in the Bloomington Herald-Times:
Monroe County attorneys make $150 from each property on the certified tax sale list each year in addition to their base salary of $62,911.
In 2010, 363 properties were on the list; in 2011, 422 properties were listed; and so far in 2012, 227 were. That’s $54,450, $63,300 and $34,050, respectively, in supplemental income for the county’s legal department, including David Schilling, Kevin Dogan and Jeff Cockerill, and county council attorney Michael Flory.
To earn the money, the attorneys perform a title search on each property headed for a tax sale. They do it on their own time — nights and weekends — not as part of their regular job duties. A title search looks for liens, mortgages or other judgments owed against a property, as well as easements, covenants or other land use restrictions.
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In most other counties in Indiana, the responsibility of a title search is borne by the bid winners of a property sold in a tax sale.
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Indiana law does not require a title search of properties on a county’s tax sale list prior to the sale.
But that could change soon. A July 16, 2012, ruling by the Bartholomew Circuit Court, in the case of M & M Investment Group LLC v. Ahlemeyer Farms Inc. and Monroe Bank, finds that county auditors are required to notify not just the property owner of the pending tax sale, but all “mortgagees” who have an interest in the property, effectively requiring a pre-sale title search.
“We have done title searches prior to the sale for over 20 years because of a U.S Supreme Court case, the Mennonite case. We think that (title searches are) constitutionally required,” Schilling said. The recent Bartholomew court case cites that case as a precedent.
“We believe that all counties soon will be doing what we’ve been doing for 20 years,” Schilling said.
Jenny Banks, director of communications for the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, agreed that the ruling means that all counties will have to search for all recorded liens on properties prior to a tax sale in order to notify all parties with an interest in the property.
But how the counties accomplish that is up to each county, Banks said. Counties with staff attorneys might do the searches in-house, as part of the job duty or as supplemental income, or the job could be contracted out. But somebody is going to have to figure out all parties that must be notified prior to a tax sale, she said.
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See the full article here:
http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2012/07/25/news.county-attorneys-supplement-income-with-tax-sale-fee.sto
