By RICK HEAD
Publisher
Time is running out for Brantley County property owners in arrears on paying taxes.
Brantley County Tax Commissioner Pat Tompkins has released the list of delinquent properties that are being foreclosed on and will be put up for sale the first Tuesday of October to obtain the taxes due.
Properties must be advertised for four weeks prior to the sale date. As debts are paid, they’re removed from the list that’s being advertised.
The sale will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., October 4 and will conclude Wednesday, October 5 from 10 p.m.-4 p.m., if all parcels are not sold on the first day of sale.
When property is to be sold for outstanding taxes, Georgia law requires that it be advertised for four consecutive weeks in the legal section of the county newspaper (pages 6-10).
Purchasers of property at tax sale do not automatically “own” the property, and property owners do not immediately get evicted. Purchasers must by law allow the owner one year after the date of sale to redeem the property.
One year from the date of the tax sale the purchaser may foreclose on the right of redemption and forever bar anyone from redeeming the property from that time on. The purchaser must issue written notice of this action.
To redeem a property, the owner or interested party must pay the purchaser the amount the purchaser paid at tax sale, plus 20 percent of that amount. In addition to this amount, the purchaser may also add to the redemption price the dollar amount of any subsequent property taxes the purchaser paid on the property after the tax sale took place.
