Bourbon County staff are in the process of carrying out a tax sale on property owners who have not paid their taxes.
In Bourbon County, a property qualifies for the tax sale after taxes are three years delinquent, said Bourbon County Treasurer Patty Love. “The taxes become delinquent in October of the following year. For example, the 2020 taxes will not be delinquent until October 1, 2021.”
“The tax sale is the only recourse we have to force people to pay their taxes,” Love said.
“We have mailed out warning letters letting people with 2016 and prior delinquent taxes know that we are working on a tax sale for 2021,” she said. “Those letters were mailed in October, November and December. We have now sent the list to the title company and they are doing the title searches.”
The property title company then returns these to the county attorney and will be filed with the court.
“To keep their property off of the tax sale, the property owner can pay 2016 and prior taxes at this time and they will be removed from the tax sale,” Love said. “Once the attorney has filed them with the court, the only way they can be taken off of the tax sale is if the property owner pays all taxes 2020 and prior taxes plus a $200. court filing fee.”
Once all the properties are filed, a notification will be published in the Fort Scott Tribune newspaper and also to the website bourboncountyks.org.
“The property owner has up until 10 a.m. the day of the tax sale to redeem their property by paying all taxes and $200,” Love said.
“In order to bid on the property at the tax sale, you have to have all of your property taxes current, and sign a paper stating that you are not related to the owner of the property you are bidding on and that you are not buying the property for the delinquent owner,” she said.
The tax sale takes place in the lobby of the Bourbon County Courthouse. with the property being sold to the highest bidder, she said.
“We will determine a date after all properties are filed with the cour,” Love said.
“We started to receive abstracts from the title company about two weeks ago,” said Bourbon County Counselor Justin Meeks. “We are getting a couple a day. We should have the sale in the late spring and if needed, another one in October or November of this year.”
The county personnel are on the the title company’s timeline,” Meeks said.
“They have been very busy, which is a good thing for everyone because that means houses are selling,” Meeks said.