Utah is a "public oral bid foreclosure auction" tax sale state – often referred to as a "deed" state. Details on the real property tax collection process can be obtained at the Real Property Tax Home Page web site maintained by the Utah State Tax Commission, Property Tax Commission:
tax.ex.state.ut.us
This site has a "Property Tax Guide" having the following address:
tax.ex.state.ut.us
The Property Tax Guide contains a section called "Delinquent taxes - Real Property" at the following address:
tax.ex.state.ut.us
Conduct of Utah's tax sales
Each of Utah's 29 counties must conduct its annual tax sale during the months of May or June – although historically such sales have been conducted on the last Wednesday in May. Specific information about each county's annual May/June tax sale can be obtained from the county auditor's office; it is the county auditor who is charged with the responsibility of selecting the exact date of that county's May/June tax sale. The most effective method of identifying which properties will be offered for sale at the annual May/June county tax sale is to contact the county auditor's office prior during the month of April of each year and find out (1) which newspaper the auditor will be using to publish the notice of tax sale and the list of properties being advertised for sale, (2) the dates of publication of that information and, hopefully, (3) the telephone number of that newspaper so that you can contact that newspaper and arrange to buy an issue containing the notice and property list.
Locating Information Concerning the Individual Utah Counties
Including Information About the County Auditor's Office
The following Internet web site addresses provide information such as street addresses, mailing addresses, e-mail addresses together with voice and fax phone number for some or all individual county offices including the county auditor's office. These sites also include links to various county web sites which may now at sometime in the future have specific information on the conduct of that county's annual tax sale:
uacnet.org
piperinfo.com
investorsnet.com
com
naco.org
utahreach.usu.edu
uacnet.org
state.ut.us
Utah County Home Pages
The following is a list of county home pages. Unfortunately, as of the date of the publication of this book, none of these web pages currently provides any specific information about that county's annual tax sale. However, the Internet is constantly growing; consequently, one or more of these sites may provide such information in the future.
Iron County: co.iron.ut.us
Officials: co.iron.ut.us
Salt Lake County: co.slc.ut.us
Elected Officials: co.slc.ut.us
Auditor: co.slc.ut.us
Utah County: co.utah.ut.us
Auditor: co.utah.ut.us
Treasurer: co.utah.ut.us
Assessor: co.utah.ut.us
Weber County: co.weber.ut.us
Government: co.weber.ut.us
Auditor: co.weber.ut.us
(Note: At the time research for being done for this material, the Weber County Auditor's site was still under construction. There was an inactive link to "Delinquent Taxes" which might provide some useful information on that county's tax sales sometime in the near future.)
How is the Annual May/June County Tax Sale Conducted?
Typically, the annual May/June county tax sale is conducted as a public oral bid auction sale where the price of the property is bid up from a minimum bid of "taxes, penalties, interest, and administrative costs."
However, historically, Utah counties have had – and are currently still authorized to have – probably the strangest auctions for real property tax delinquent property held anywhere in the United States (or, for that matter, anywhere in the world)! Prior to the enactment of the law currently governing Utah tax sales, each county auction had to be held on the same day, the last Wednesday in May (hence the term "May tax sale"). The minimum bid was an amount equal to the delinquent real property taxes, penalties, interest, and administrative costs which had accumulated during the previous five year period. HOWEVER, if a bidder wished to increase his or her bid about the statutory minimum, that person could NOT do so by increasing the dollar amount of his of her bid, but had to increase his or her bid by decreasing the amount of the property that person would be willing to take for the minimum bid!
If, for instance, the minimum bid for a 40-acre parcel was $127.34 (an actual example of a property I purchased), then that parcel would be bid down in size, by progressive increments, until only one bidder remained – and that bidder got a tax deed to whatever was left of the parcel. In effect, the property was subdivided with each successive bid. In the case of my purchase mentioned above, 735 running feet was taken off the westerly boundary and 785 running feet were taken off the southern boundary – leaving approximately 7.185 acres at a cost of about $17.72 per acre!
Under current Utah law, the county governing body (i.e., the county commissioners) can still choose to use this historical bidding procedure should it chose to do so.
The relevant statutory language which governs the conduct of county tax sales is reproduced below:
(4) The governing body may accept any of the following bids:
(a) the highest bid amount for the entire parcel of property, however, a bid may not be accepted for an amount which is insufficient to pay the taxes, penalties, interest, and administrative costs; or
(b) a bid in an amount sufficient to pay the taxes, penalties, interest, and administrative costs, for less than the entire parcel.
(i) The bid which shall be accepted shall be the bid of the bidder who will pay in cash the full amount of the taxes, penalties, interest, and administrative costs for the smallest portion of the entire parcel.
(ii) The county auditor at the tax sale or the county legislative body following the tax sale shall reject a bid to purchase a strip of property around the entire perimeter of the parcel, or a bid to purchase a strip of the parcel which would prevent access to the remainder of the parcel by the redemptive owner or otherwise unreasonably diminish the value of that remainder.
(iii) If the bid accepted is for less than the entire parcel, the auditor shall note the fact, with a description of the property covered by the bid, upon the tax sale record and the balance of the parcel not affected by the bid shall be considered to have been redeemed by the owner.
(5) The county legislative body may decide that none of the bids are acceptable.
Locating Utah Tax Sale Law on the Internet
Links to various sources of Utah law can be found at the following Internet web site address:
law.cornell.edu
Utah Statutes can be found on the Internet at the following web site address:
le.state.ut.us
More specifically, the statutes which govern Utah tax sales (being Title 59, Revenue and Taxation, Chapter 2, Property Tax Act, starting with § 59-02-1351) can be found at the following address:
le.state.ut.us |
