LOWVILLE — Every property on the auction block in Lewis County’s tax auction May 8 found a new owner.
According to County Treasurer Patricia L. O’Brien, “We had 20 and we sold 20.”
There were a large range of properties available, including small lots, camps. houses and larger acreages with river waterfront and private forest.
Mrs. O’Brien said that some of the properties that sold were surprising because of their size or location, but in at least one case she was aware that it was the neighboring land owner who made the purchase to increase their parcel’s size.
“You can’t ever tell what will sell and what won’t,” she said.
The auction netted the county $121,865, Mrs. O’Brien said, which helps reimburse the county the lost tax revenue on those 20 properties, providing all of the bidders pay the remainder due on the property within the 30 days that is part of the bidding agreement.
To buy a property at the tax auction, bidders had to pay a number of fees in addition to the winning bid price: an 11 percent premium, a 1.5 percent advertising fee and processing and closing costs.
The down payment on any property at the auction is $1,000, or 20 percent of the buying price with the premium, whichever is higher.
Every year, there are properties that get pulled from the auction, often because they pose liability risk for the county.
This year, the Lewis County Dairy on State Route 812 and the former Lyons Falls elementary school building fall into that category.
Mrs. O’Brien said County Attorney Joan E. McNichol is currently working to get the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up the sites so the burden doesn’t fall on county taxpayers.
A temporary easement will be put in place to look at the issues with the properties and get them cleaned up by the EPA.
“We don’t want to push it on someone else down the line to have that liability either,” Mrs. O’Brien said.
By waiting to foreclose until after the cleanup, the current owners are still liable for the taxes and the loss of the unpaid taxes are on the ledger.
Once properties are sold, whatever property taxes that were due are wiped out, Mrs. O’Brien said, but there may be water and sewer bills outstanding that would be the responsibility of the new owners in addition to school and village taxes for the year.
Properties that don’t sell are maintained by the county until the following year for the next auction when it once again becomes available.
These yearly sales are the only time tax foreclosure properties can be purchased, Mrs. O’Brien said.