By Jim Sack
Occasionally, an interesting name appears on the tax sale records. For the uninitiated, the county conducts tax sales of properties that are behind on property tax payments, so far behind, in fact, that the county will make you a deal. You can buy the bad debt of the property owner and, if the owner does not redeem the property, it is yours for whatever you bid.
In the 1980s a local politician was sunk when his name appeared on the tax rolls as delinquent. His name appeared again on this roll.
So, I look at each tax sale list to determine if there are properties that I might want, or if my name, god forbid, is there. I perused the list, which is public and is found in the auditor’s office, this morning.
I found the name of John F. Popp. Not sure whether that is the famous JFP, but he is $4,029 behind on a property. The partnership of Hanning and Bean, another famous local real estate name, is behind on a number of properties, one for more than $203,000. The City of Fort Wayne is also listed as delinquent. The Diocese of Fort Wayne is behind, a Church of God and a Trinity Baptist Church are delinquent. (Perhaps we need to pass the plate another time.) It looks like American Legion Post #82 needs to raise its dues.
Frost Inc. is behind on a property on Calhoun Street. The US Postal Service owes a few shekels, as does the United Steelworkers and Hassan Barrel. Something called Rity Properties is behind on pages of properties, and Rainbow Community Organization owes the county thousands on a variety of near east side properties.
A bit of Bear Stearns detritus shows up with two properties under trust. Even from the grave they own. BS, aptly named, was one of the Wall Street high-flyer investment houses that crashed, burned and set fire to much of our economy in 2008.
Hannover Lending has a few delinquent properties on its books.
But, my favorite was Go Invest Wisely with a string of delinquent taxes. Hmmmm.
Editor’s note: Is this one in the same? http://www.goinvestwisely.com/
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Jim, in my experience, this is a sign of the times on two levels. Obviously a number of people are honestly "strapped" and the property tax is far less important than food on the table. The other is, there are a good number of people out there whose business model absolutely includes not paying any taxes until the last possible moment. They believe their capital is better used elsewhere until the tax absolutely has to be paid. I've worked for guys like that and it's more and more common to not give the government a dime until forced to do so.
Well, you are right. Fred Hunter did that. In the 80s he chose not to pay his property taxes and was called out during the councilmatic campaign by Ben Eisbart. Ben won and that question, whether to pay or not to pay and use the tax delinquency as a lone, was brought up over and over again during the campaign. Fred, by the way, was the father or Melissa Hunter Long and the father-in-law of David Long.
It seems to me there are fewer names on the list this year than in years past. And, this spring taxes dropped greatly. The county charges, I believe, a flat 10 percent for being a day late. I believe if I were to buy a tax lien I would be paid eight percent should the owner choose to redeem the property. For some people ten percent is a cost of doing business. You might take a look. The list is somewhere online in the labyrinthine site the County maintains as a “public service.” I wish my friend, Angry, would redo the site to make it more user friendly.