When property taxes remain unpaid properties are often abandoned and become eyesores. Private tax buyers often purchase the taxes and sometimes they are successful in off loading the property to a private buyer. When that fails, the property becomes the concern of the county. When property taxes go unpaid and have no private bidders at an annual county tax sale, the county acts as trustee, and the delinquent tax agent manages the unredeemed certificates. They hold the tax certificates through the statutory redemption period and acquire a tax deed. After acquiring tax deeds for unredeemed properties, the tax agent coordinates surplus real estate public auctions and sealed-bid sales to return the parcels to a taxpaying status.
For many years after being first hired in the 1990’s by the Board Chairman Max Call, the firm of Joseph Meyer and Company was the tax agent for Vermilion County and and successfully moved many parcels to taxpaying status. Last year, Vermilion County decided to terminate their relationship with Joseph G Meyer & Co. and partner with Vermilion Advantage to do the tax sales “in house.” After initiating the new partnership, things went awry and resulted in confusion and questions about funding. As a consequence, Vermilion County and Vermilion Advantage terminated their tax agent relationship deciding it was not a good fit. However, when they turned to Joseph Meyer & Co. to reengage their services, that company refused to take on Vermilion County at this time due to the confusion and current state of the program in Vermilion County. As a result, the County has no Tax Agent with the knowledge to run the program. With the precision required to correctly run the program given new court decisions about surplus funds being returned to the delinquent tax owner adding to the complexity of the property tax system itself, that has caused concern at the August Finance Committee meeting for Vermilion County.