There were 34 properties in the delinquent property tax sale section of The Oglethorpe Echo’s Legals listing on Sept. 7. Some amounts were above $9,000 and others were as low as $336.50.
Of those, 11 delinquent tax bills were paid before the Sept. 27 deadline, with the average tax due being $7,479.70, but others weren’t paid and entered the property sale process.
Properties are sold starting on the first Tuesday of October and can continue the next day if necessary, according to the Office of the Oglethorpe County Tax Commissioner.
Sheila Arnold, Oglethorpe County’s tax commissioner, begins the delinquent notice process once an individual's property taxes are two years past due. Arnold mails letters from April through September to remind property owners to pay.
The tax is based on the value of the taxable property. After the due date, interest is added on the 21st of each month at prime plus 3%, along with a 5% penalty every 120 days, going up to 20%, according to the Oglethorpe County Tax website.
She submitted a list of the property owners who hadn’t paid to The Echo at the first of September. Arnold then provided weekly updates of those who paid and they were removed from the list.
“There's nothing different than every two years when I get a tax sale,” Arnold said. “Sometimes, it's the same ones on there, and sometimes, there's new ones on there.”
After 15 years, the highest bid Arnold has seen is around $60,000 for a property.
“Depends on the property, what the property has, if it has a house or mobile home or land. Just depends,” Arnold said.
The majority of property in the sale process doesn’t include a home, which means residents aren’t usually displaced.
“I work with people when they're on the tax sale,” Arnold said. “I try my best to work with them as best I can because I don't want to sell anybody’s property.”