It is almost time for the annual Blount County property tax auction. It will be held on Tuesday, May 3rd. If you are unfamiliar with this process, real estate that has unpaid property tax is sold at auction to the highest bidder by the revenue commission. As of today, there are 63 pages of unpaid taxes!
Occasionally, errors are made by escrow companies or the tax department that can cause taxes to go unpaid or be assessed incorrectly. When these errors occur, they are some of the biggest headaches a taxpayer may ever face if the property actually makes it to auction. The best way to prevent this is to check the revenue commissions tax sale list every year and make sure your name is not on it even if your taxes are paid out of your mortgage through an escrow account. Be sure to check the list at the bottom of the page.
There are also a few reasons someone may intentionally not pay their property taxes. For example, a home builder that builds a subdivision may have lots that will not perk or the terrain is too rough to build on so instead of trying to sell a bad lot, they may choose to not pay the tax and let the government take the property and sell it. Unlike other taxes, not paying a property tax isn’t a crime, you will simply forfeit the property. Keep this in mind if you see someone’s name on the list, let them know about it instead of judging them, there is a good chance they have no idea it’s on there!
The current list as of April, 8 is below. You can also find it on the Blount Revenue Commission homepage.