That leaves 60 properties with delinquent taxes of nearly $463,000 to be sold in a second auction date on Aug. 9.
And there are 548 other open delinquency cases that need paid, put on a payment plan, or sold at auction, according to Toni Naill, a deputy treasurer who handles tax foreclosure cases at the Clark County Treasurer’s Office.
The amount due on those parcels wasn’t immediately available because of the volume of cases.
The number of delinquent tax sales in Clark County spiked in 2006, shortly before the housing bubble burst in 2007, said Bill Hoffman, assistant Clark County prosecuting attorney who handles the cases.
It then approximately doubled the number it files for auction from about 40 every six months to about 80 every six months in an effort to keep the backlog from gaining steam, he said.
“We have a little bit of a backlog in our active cases, and we’re trying to do them chronologically. We’re not really pushing any to the front unless we know that there’s a buyer because we want to obviously sell one that people are interested in,” Hoffman said.
“If someone were to contact the treasurer or myself, we’d kind of move them toward the front. But for the most part they’ll just kind of sit for another year and a half, hoping people will redeem them or work something out before we get them to a sale,” he added.
It takes about 2 ½ years of processing before the prosecutor’s office can legally file a parcel for a tax sale, all the while it accrues additional taxes, according to Hoffman.
“So, really by the time we get them to a sale, they’re (at least) three years delinquent,” he said.
Properties that aren’t sold on Aug. 9 will be turned over to the Clark County auditor for a sale.
However, owners have a chance even after the treasurer’s auction to redeem their properties. “They have until the confirmation entry is filed after the sale to redeem the property by paying the taxes and the court costs,” Hoffman said.
According to Hoffman, the properties at the auditor’s sale must start at the minimum bid, but unlike the sheriff’s sale, the auditor can drop the price below minimum if there are no initial bids.
The purpose, he said, is to make a sale and get them back to active status.
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