Treasurer updates county on public tax sale results

HARTINGTON – No one attended the 2024 public tax sale in Cedar County.

That is what County Treasurer Jean Wiebelhaus told the board of commissioners on March 26 about this year’s tax sale that was held on March 4 at the courthouse.

In a follow-up interview, she noted all delinquent real estate taxes in the county were oered for public auction on March 4. However, no parcels were sold that day, as nobody showed up for the tax sale.

“Several counties had no one show up,” Wiebelhaus said. “I had three individuals pre-registered for the tax sale by the due date of February 29. Those three individuals did not attend the sale on Monday, March 4. There is a registration fee to attend the ‘public’ tax sale of $25 – non-refundable.”

This is the first time in the 21 years she has been working in the treasurer's o$ce that no one attended the tax sale.

"Normally, there are 15 to 25 investors or individuals attending the sale and purchasing real estate taxes,” Wiebelhaus said.

She cited a change to Nebraska Revised Statute 77-1818 – which went into eect in September 2023 – as one reason no one from the public attended the tax sale.

According to the statute, “Upon issuance of the certificate, the purchaser shall notify, by personal service, the property owner of the real property that was sold for taxes at the address listed for such owner in the records of the county assessor.”

"Investors have to serve notification to the property owners that they purchased their taxes,” Wiebelhaus said. “A lot of investors did not attend the tax sale because now they have to notify the property owners.”

She noted a couple of “big investors" notified the county that they would not be attending the tax sale this year due to the statute change.

“Some of (the investors) are thinking that with this statute changing that they would not make as much interest,” Wiebelhaus said. “They would not hold these tax certificates very long by having to notify the property owners.”

The week of the tax sale, an individual called her o$ce requesting a listing of parcels not purchased at the tax sale.

“The individual purchased real estate taxes for five parcels at ‘private’ auction,” Wiebelhaus said. “He did not have to pay the $25 registration fee to attend the tax sale as I closed the public auction the day of the sale.”

Two of the delinquent parcels advertised for this year’s tax sale were two years delinquent.

She turned over to the commissioners the list of delinquent parcels that were offered at the tax sale and not sold and she received authority from them “to write up ‘county’ tax sales,” she said.

“The county then holds those certificates for three years and then the county must follow the foreclosure procedures if the property owner does not redeem the ‘county’ tax sale,” Wiebelhaus said. “I did not have any ‘county’ tax sales to turn over to the county attorney as there were no certificates written up in 2021.”