Company buys second round of property tax bills

If you owe delinquent property taxes in Whitley County, then you might want to hurry down to the Whitley County Clerk’s Office.
For the second time this month, a Dallas company has purchased more than $100,000 in delinquent property tax bills from the clerk’s office.
Whitley County Clerk Kay Schwartz said Tax Ease Lien Investments 1 LLC delivered a $134,414.51 check to her office Jan. 17 to purchase 182 delinquent property tax bills for the years 2002, 2003, and 2004.
On Jan. 8, Tax Ease Lien Investments purchased 187 delinquent tax bills from 2005 totaling $130,324.86.
Schwartz said some of the tax bills that Tax Ease purchased last week belonged to the some of the same people as the company’s previous tax bill purchase.
She admits that she was surprised by the two purchases in one month.
“I am shocked really. I had no idea that they would do two purchases,” Schwartz said. “They told me when I sent the first papers back that they were getting ready to buy some more.
“I thought they would have to do some more research, but evidently they did all of it while they were here. They haven’t said anything about any other purchases, so I don’t know.”
Schwartz’s advice for delinquent taxpayers is to go ahead and pay their back tax bills, “if they haven’t been bought already.”
So far, Schwartz said she hasn’t gotten any more calls from any companies about purchasing property tax bills.
Tax Ease or any company purchasing tax bills can collect 12 percent interest from the property owner plus “a reasonable attorney fee.”
If the delinquent owners don’t pay Tax Ease within one year, the company can seek a judge’s order to have the land sold on the steps of the courthouse to collect the debt.
Schwartz said one thing that surprised her was the lack of phone calls about delinquent tax bills after the company made it’s first purchase.
The county clerk’s office had fewer than 50 phone calls from people wanting to know if they owed taxes, or if their tax bills were bought.
After a tax bill has been purchased, Schwartz said it is out of her office’s hands other than answering questions from people wanting to know if their bills have been purchased.
Schwartz said she has spoken with a Tax Ease official, who told her the company is willing to work with people, whose bills it purchased.
The company has agreed to set up a payment plan for some delinquent taxpayers, who have already contacted them, Schwartz said.
People, who had a delinquent bill purchased by Tax Ease, can contact the company at 1-877-829-3273.
Schwartz said she won’t know how much each tax district will receive as a result of the tax bill purchase until she runs her monthly report on Jan. 31.
Schwartz emphasized that it’s the property owner’s responsibility to pay the taxes on property they owe, even if they don’t receive a bill because the county has a bad address.
“Some of the notices have come back for bad addresses. If you know you own the property, you know you have to pay the taxes. It is the taxpayers responsibility to pay the taxes,” she said. “The bottom line is, if you own it, you have to pay it.”
Delinquent taxpayers receive several notices notifying them they owe delinquent tax bills, if they aren’t paid.
“You get your real estate property tax bill in late October or the first of November,” Schwartz said. “You get a second notice from the sheriff’s office.
“Once those bills are sent over to our office, the county attorney sends you another notice. Periodically, he has sent out notices for just about all the years.”
Property tax bills are prepared by the PVA’s office, and sent out initially by the sheriff’s department for collection.
2006 property tax bills were payable by Nov. 1 in the sheriff’s office. Sometime around June, the sheriff’s department advertises the delinquent tax list in the newspaper.
By early fall, the sheriff’s department will close out its books on the 2006 property taxes, and send the delinquent tax bills to the county clerk’s office, which then collects the bills if they are not paid.
Schwartz noted that her office has no choice but to sell the delinquent tax bills if someone wants to purchase them, and has the money to do so and pay for the proper filing fees.
As of Jan. 1, there was about $2.9 million in back property taxes including interest that was owed in Whitley County on tax bills from 1999 through 2005.
The Jan. 8 tax bill purchase paid off about one-third of the 2005’s $558,391.97 in delinquent property taxes.
Prior to last week’s tax bill purchase, there was $419,751.70 owed on delinquent 2002 property tax bills, $489,543.16 on 2003 bills, and $443,826.31 on 2004 bills.