No buyers for county tax sale

HARTINGTON – Jean Wiebelhaus experienced a ‘first’ in her 21 years as Cedar County treasurer.

No one attended the 2024 public tax sale. “Normally, there are 15 to 25 investors or individuals attending the sale and purchasing real estate taxes,” Wiebelhaus said.

Three individuals pre-registered to participate in the tax sale by the due date of Feb. 29. But those three did not attend the sale on March 4 and lost a $25 non-refundable registration fee.

All delinquent real estate taxes in the county were offered for public auction, however, no parcels were sold.

Even though it was unusual for Wiebelhaus, several other counties experienced no buyers at their tax sales. She cited a change last Fall to Nebraska law as a potential reason no one from the public attended. The new law states that once issued a certificate, the buyer has to notify, by personal service, the property owner.

She said a couple of “big investors” notified the county they would not be attending the tax sale this year due to the law 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 office requesting a listing of parcels not purchased at the tax sale and then purchased five parcels at private auction, Wiebelhaus said.

Two of the delinquent parcels advertised for this year's tax sale were two years delinquent. She turned over the list of delinquent parcels that were offered at the tax sale and not sold to the Cedar County Commissioners at their meeting last week. The board gave authority to Wiebelhaus to write up the remaining tax sale certificate to the county.

“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,” she said.

There were no county tax sales certificate to turn over to the county attorney this year.