County's annual tax sale takes in $260,000 in unpaid taxes & fees

Posted 6/27/22

PRINCESS ANNE — In less than 90 minutes Somerset County took in nearly $260,000 in back taxes and water and sewer charges during the annual tax sale. The collection of taxes and fees delinquent …

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County's annual tax sale takes in $260,000 in unpaid taxes & fees

Posted

PRINCESS ANNE — In less than 90 minutes Somerset County took in nearly $260,000 in back taxes and water and sewer charges during the annual tax sale. The collection of taxes and fees delinquent for at least two years will be shared with the state, county, two municipalities and Sanitary District.

“An hour and 20 minutes, not bad,” said auctioneer Willie Benton, who watched for signs from the dozens of registered bidders to see who was in the game to try for one of the 126 properties that were ultimately on the list. Successful bidders received a certificate of sale from the tax office and must wait six months before they can begin to foreclose, with their final bid price what would be paid at settlement.

Some of the properties in the tax sale that received bids included a lot in the Princess Anne Industrial Park that was to be home to ReGreen Technologies, and in Crisfield a unit in the Captain’s Galley condominium and the former Jones’ Market on Lawsonia Road.

While all of the county’s properties sold Crisfield was left with 10 and the Sanitary District with two. The ones with no sale in Crisfield included sections of the vacant parking lot at Puppy Hole Court which are assessed as if a building is there — an anomaly that Tax Collector Willis Dryden said has frustrated past owners.

There’s only one Tangier Sound condominium that was built but Guttenberg Estates LLC which owned several unimproved parcels was being assessed for buildings, for example, “Building 8” valued by the State Department of Assessment and Taxation at $528,000 with more than $12,687 in taxes due. It received no bid as did several others like it.

Also in Crisfield the properties on South Fourth Street where two ramshackle duplexes were demolished in the spring of 2021 were back in the tax sale and received no bids.

On the day of sale only the taxes and fees were due. If all hammer bids combined were paid that day it would be $3.56 million.

The sale was held outdoors at the County Office Complex, in front of the old high school gym used by Recreation & Parks. Anyone who wants a property that did not receive a bid may have it assigned to them by paying the current taxes and fees due at the county tax office.

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