CROTHERSVILLE
Crothersville Town Council members have agreed to bid on a rundown property in an upcoming tax sale with plans to clean it up and sell it.
During a meeting last week, Councilman Jason Hillenburg, representing the town safety board, requested the council use funds to purchase 506 Park Ave.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThat property was owned by David Coombs, who passed away in 2017.
Hillenburg informed the council there are no heirs to the property that can be found.
“If there were heirs, to our knowledge, they don’t want the property,” he said.
The property, which includes a trailer, is priced at $2,700, or what is owed in back taxes, Hillenburg said.
He suggested the council set a maximum amount it is willing to pay.
“At least we could maybe possibly run it up a little bit so somebody is going to have to spend a little money to buy it,” he said.
Councilman Jamy Greathouse recommended the council set a limit of $5,000 for the purchase, which was approved with a unanimous vote of 5-0.
The tax sale is scheduled to take place Oct. 22.
If the town is successful in acquiring the property, it cannot legally remove the trailer for a period of one year but can maintain the property by mowing it, he said.
“But anybody that buys it at the tax sale will not be able to remove the trailer for a year, so we’re still going to have an eyesore on that street in town,” Hillenburg said.
Any heir to the property has one year to claim it by paying the back taxes plus an additional 10 to 15% on top of that amount, town attorney Matt Lorenzo said.
By purchasing the property, Hillenburg said the town has an opportunity to take steps from preventing someone who isn’t local from buying it.
“Our thought process was that we are trying to eliminate the number of out-of-town, out-of-state landlords who like to buy up cheap tax properties in our community and turn it into a pile of rubbish,” he said. “We’re finding out more and more the number of properties in this community that are not owned by anybody that lives in this community.”
A couple of owners don’t even live in the state, he added.
“They buy these properties up, site unseen, for a song and a dance and then let who ever rents it run amok and destroy the place and they don’t care because they live in Florida or wherever,” he said. “It’s just money for them, but they could care less what it looks like.”
Even with the expense to remove the trailer and clean up the property, Hillenburg said the town could make a nice profit from selling it.
“Just the property itself has a potential value of anywhere from $20,000 to $25,000, just the lot,” Hillenburg said.
He anticipates it will cost the town $3,000 to $4,500 to have the trailer removed.
Hillenburg thought town ordinance requires any home built on the property to be a stick-built home and not a mobile or modular home.
Council President Danieta Foster said the ordinance allows for a modular home, but it has to be on a foundation.