Each year, on the last Monday in August, Mississippi counties hold delinquent tax sales.
Each year, the sale features pretty much the same cast of characters, too, says Lowndes County tax assessor Greg Andrews.
“For reasons I can’t understand, it’s roughly the same properties ever year and more or less the same people bidding on them,” he said.
This year’s delinquent tax sale will be held Monday. In Lowndes County, where Andrews expects the county to collect $1.8 million in back taxes through the sale, the bidding begins at 8:30 a.m. at the Trotter Convention Center in downtown Columbus.
In Oktibbeha County, the sale will begin at 9 a.m. in the upstairs courtroom at the county courthouse in Starkville. In Clay County, the sale will be held at 9 a.m. in the upstairs courtroom at the county courthouse in West Point. In Noxubee County, the sale begins at 10 a.m. at the county courthouse in Macon.
In Lowndes County, Andrews said he expects 1,800 to 1,900 parcels to be for sale Monday with about 150 bidders participating, but notes that very few properties actually ever change hands.
“Really, this is more about investing than buying a property,” Andrews said. “Most of the bidders have no real interest in owning the property. Only about 1 percent of the properties actually change hands. For the people who bid, it’s a way to make interest on the delinquent property taxes.”
Some properties that go unsold during the tax sale will be returned to the state while others may be in bankruptcy.
That’s the case with one of the few “new” properties on this year’s delinquent tax sales list — KiOR. The bio-fuel company filed bankruptcy in November. An auction was planned for this month, but has been postponed. The facility is being offered for auction by Tiger Remarketing Services on Oct. 15 via a webcast auction from Columbus.
“It’s not likely that anyone will bid on KiOR (Monday),” Andrews said. “For starters, the property is in bankruptcy proceedings and, second, the site itself reverts back to the county on Jan. 1.”
KiOR owes Lowndes County, the city of Columbus and the Lowndes County School District a combined $1,085,000 in fee-in-lieu payments, which were due in February. Those funds should be recaptured upon completion of the auction.
Andrews said that property owners who are not current on their taxes as of 5 p.m. today will have their property placed on the delinquent tax sales list. Bidders “buy” the property for the amount of taxes owed. The original property owner has two years to pay off the delinquent taxes before losing the property. In the meantime, the property owner is charged 1.5 percent monthly interest until the taxes are paid. When the owner pays the delinquent taxes and interest, the person who won the bid on the property gets not only the purchase price, but the interest payments, too.
“After someone misses the deadline, they’ll have paid, a minimum, two months of interest, which is 3 percent,” Andrews said. “For the person who buys the property, he’ll earn at least 3 percent on his purchase, which is better interest than you get at a bank. Often, he will get even more than that, depending on how long it takes for the property owner to pay off the delinquent taxes.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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