From a lengthy article in the Bloomington Herald-Times:
One hundred seventeen Monroe County property owners who thought they could prevent their property from going to a tax sale by making a payment on their back taxes between June 29 and July 13 might be mistaken, even though that’s what Monroe County Treasurer Cathy Smith told them in a letter.
As published in the Aug. 22 Classified section of The Herald-Times, 375 properties with taxes delinquent for more than two years will be sold on Oct. 3, unless their owners pay the full amount owed, plus late penalties, a state-mandated $25 fee and $150 for a title search.
On June 27, Smith sent a letter to the 375 property owners warning them that their properties were headed for a tax sale because of long-delinquent taxes. She said they had to pay at least part of the bill by July 13 to avoid the sale, and 117 responded.
It’s the procedure she said she’s been following for the three years she’s held the office. But it is not what state law requires. And this year, Monroe County Auditor Amy Gerstman is upholding the law.
Smith keeps track of properties taxes in arrears via computer software. Following state statute, on July 1 of each year, the county treasurer certifies a list of properties so delinquent they qualify for tax sale and sends it to the auditor. In 2012, July 1 was on a Sunday, so Smith certified the tax sale list on June 29, and delivered it to Gerstman on that date. July 13 is the date, according to a schedule prepared by the county legal department, on which the title search fee is added.
Between July 2 and July 13, 117 property owners of the 375 on the certified tax sale list paid or made a payment on their back taxes and late penalties, and the software automatically “unflagged” those properties, meaning they would avoid the tax sale. But the software and the treasurer were mistaken.
According to state law, once the tax sale list is certified on July 1, the full amount owed must be paid to avoid a tax sale, including the controversial $150 title search fee that pays county attorneys for that moonlighting job....
“My personal opinion is that we’re in a position now where we should honor that deadline for payments because it was an official letter sent by the treasurer, even though technically, by statute, it was incorrect,” Stoops said, referring to the 117 property owners who paid the lower “pre-certification” amount by July 13. “People who got that letter, an official letter, would naturally assume they had until July 13 to pay up. That date was incorrect,” he said, again stressing that he was stating his own opinion, and not an official decision by the board of commissioners. ...
In the past three years, the State Board of Accounts has not expressed any concerns about tax sale procedures in Monroe County, Stoops noted. “It violates statutes, and shouldn’t have happened, but now that we know that the error happened, ... it’s a difficult position for the auditor to be in,” he said.
“I don’t think people who paid should be made to suffer because of the county’s error,” Stoops said.
“I’m willing to make payment arrangements,” to accommodate the 117 people who responded to Smith’s letter by July 13, the county treasurer said, “but it depends on Amy” Gerstman, the auditor, to agree to remove those properties from the tax sale list.
Otherwise, the 117 property owners who thought they were off the hook will have to ante up the balance of what they owe, the hefty “post certification amount,” to avoid the Oct. 3 tax sale.
See the full article here:
http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2012/08/23/news.county-treasurer-auditor-at-odds-over-tax-sale-list.sto
