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Pedestrians walk in the Thousand Oaks Addition Tuesday night. Star Land Development recently paid more than $30,000 in back taxes on the properties. On Aug. 25, the county will auction off properties of delinquent taxpayers.

In an overnight express package, the Buchanan County Collector’s Office received a $36,171 payment in back taxes on Tuesday.

The taxes on 86 properties came after several notices to one company, Star Land and Development Inc., and its mortgage company. The company also was listed in the News-Press public notices during the last three weeks.

In a spiraling economy, the county collector’s office is making a special effort this year to get notices to delinquent taxpayers before the county begins auctioning properties on Aug. 25.

Currently, 727 properties are slated for tax sale on about $750,000 in back taxes, said Peggy Campbell, county collector. The last day to have paid county taxes without penalty was Dec. 31.

The number compares to 650 delinquent properties at the same time last year, she said. Only about 340 properties ended up going to auction, and only about 115 were auctioned off since most residents pay their taxes just before the auction date, Ms. Campbell said.

Property tax sales, a topic of some late-night television infomercials, have drawn the inexperienced bidder who doesn’t understand the intricacies of the process, Ms. Campbell said.

Properties can be up for auction three years in a row. If a property is bought at the sale on its first or second offering, the original owner still has one year to pay the taxes and redeem the property. If a property is sold on its third offering, the owner has just 90 days to redeem the property.

After the 90 days the real estate becomes the property of the winning bidder, but that doesn’t clear any outstanding mortgages and liens, which become the responsibility of the bidder.

Ahmad Safi can be reached at ahmadsafi@npgco.com.

A Buchanan County official misidentified the owner of Star Land and Development Inc. in a story that appeared on Page B1 Wednesday about the company paying $36,000 in late property taxes to Buchanan County. Star Land is owned by F. Jeffrey Miller.