Approximately 24 properties in Nodaway County will be auctioned off in the annual tax sale at 10 am, Monday, August 28 in the Nodaway County Administration Center meeting room.

Nodaway County Collector Marilyn Jenkins began the process of notifying property owners who were delinquent on their taxes in April, working hard to decrease the list from 193 properties to 24. Out of the 24, several owners have contacted her with an intent to pay their taxes before the day of the sale.

When can a property be sold?

A property can be sold after the owner fails to pay the taxes for two years in a row. Jenkins has a lengthy list of regulations she has to follow. First, she notifies the owners by certified mail. Next, she performs lien searches and notifies any lender who has an investment in the property, allowing them the opportunity to make the payment or contact the owner.

She goes on to contact the original property owners two more times. Then the properties get advertised in the newspaper for three consecutive weeks, allowing for property owners as well as any lenders to be notified that the property will be sold.

Owners have until the Friday before the sale to redeem their property by paying any delinquent taxes. Any person or lending company can pay to redeem the property, however, it remains in the name of the original owner.

How can I buy property at the sale?

Potential buyers must sign an affidavit that they are current on all of their taxes. Jenkins is the auctioneer and bidding starts at the price of the delinquent taxes plus any penalty or sale fees. Buyers must be present to bid and must pay the full purchase price to the Nodaway County Collector’s Office immediately at the close of the sale, when they are issued a certificate of purchase. The buyer can not take possession of the property for a full year.

The purchaser must conduct another lien search on the property 90 days before the next tax sale and notify any party who has a lien on the property by certified mail as well as contact the original owner of the property one last time.

Can the original owner get the property back?

Yes, they can. They have up to one full year from the tax sale date to continue to have possession of the property and to redeem the property. To redeem the property, they must pay the full amount of the tax sale purchase price and 10 percent interest. They must also pay the current year’s tax bill with eight percent interest as well as any bills the purchaser acquired.

Anyone can redeem the property, however, the property will remain in the name of the original owner.

After a year, is the property mine?

After a year has passed, the purchaser can obtain a collector’s deed to the land. This is not a free-and-clear title and you can not get title insurance on the property, meaning lenders would not lend money to have the property developed. If the purchaser does not obtain a collector’s deed in two years, they lose possession of the property.

How can I get a clear title?

In order to get a clear title, purchasers who have a collector’s deed can get a lawyer and apply for a quiet title through the court system, which would cost approximately $2,000 and take about nine months to accomplish.

When is the sale final?

After the purchaser has obtained a quiet title, the sale is final and the property belongs to them.

If the land has been offered for a tax sale for the third time, the original owners only have 90 days to redeem the property after the tax sale instead of a year, at which point the sale would be final.

Can someone get the land back in the future?

If the purchaser only has a collector’s deed and not a quiet title, then any family member who was not born at the time of the tax sale has up to 27 years to come back and redeem the property. At that point, Jenkins stated it would be up to the courts to decide if that relative would have to reimburse the purchaser for any development costs to the land.