By Shanderia K. Posey
Editor
The sale of property in Hinds County resulting from unpaid taxes continues until 4:30 p.m. Sept. 2, at the Hinds County Courthouse, 407 E. Pascagoula St., in courtroom No. 6.
Hinds County Tax Collector Eddie Fair said Tuesday the annual tax sale is going great so far with a lot of people coming from out of state to purchase property. “It’s good for Hinds County but bad for citizens sometimes,” said Fair, noting how citizens lose their property. Fair explained how citizens have less of a chance of getting the property back when people come from out of state to buy the property. When the property is purchased by a local person, those losing the property “have an opportunity to get it back and can communicate with them (the purchasers),”
Fair said. “That’s why we try so hard to keep it in Hinds County.” Property being sold to the highest bidder comes out of District 1, which is the city of Jackson, and District 2, which is rural parts of Hinds County. The areas include city of Clinton, Clinton Separate, Jackson Separate School and the town of Terry. Any unclaimed property will go to the state of Mississippi. Fair has never opted to offer tax sales online for several reasons.
In his opinion, in-person bids encourage local residents interested in buying property to get involved, give those losing their property a better chance of possibly getting it back and help to prevent outside investors from coming in and buying multiple properties all at once. During the 2016 Legislative session, Senate Bill 2240 passed and was signed by Gov. Phil Bryant stating that counties “may enter into agreements with online bidders to conduct sales of land for unpaid taxes using an online bidding and sale procedure.”
However, county officials have been informed of fraudulent activity of online tax sales in other states in which limitless entities – some with one owner – enter tax sales online.
The Aug. 11 and Aug. 18 editions of The Mississippi Link contain the listing of all property up for auction. Go online to www.mississippilink.com and search under e-Edition to find a copy of the paper.
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