Flagler County 2009 Tax Certificate Sale Completed – Newly Liened Properties Include Bobby Ginn’s Island Estates Home
Some lots reclassified as ‘drop lots’ by the Palm Coast now carry assessments less than their outstanding property taxes. Tax Certificates holders could not have seen it coming.
Palm Coast, FL – June 2, 2010 – Flagler County wrapped up its on-line 2009 Tax Certificate auction yesterday. This year’s sale brought in over $8 million to local taxing districts.
The total receipts include $49,991.58 paid for a tax certificate for Bobby Ginn’s Island Estates home (assessed for $2,542,241). There were over 25,000 bids for that certificate. GoToby.com was unable to find other certificates on which so many bids were placed. The Ginn certificate was purchases by Investments 2234 LLC carrying an interest rate of .25%. Investments 2234 LLC purchased 459 certificates with a total value of over $1.6 million
Tax Certificates are sold to private investors who pay the delinquent tax amount plus interest and fees in return for future accrued interest when the tax is ultimately collected (the certificate is redeemed). The certificate represents a lien on the subject property.
The current sale was for 2009 delinquent taxes only. Successful bidders must pay the delinquent 2009 taxes, interest, fees, etc. Bids were placed on-line for each subject parcel. Bidding was for the interest rate that will be charged on the delinquent amount going forward. By law, the bids must be between 0% and 18%. The lowest bid interest rate wins.
What can happen next?
-
If a certificate is redeemed, the holder receives the face amount of the certificate plus accumulated interest at the bid rate, or plus 5% of the face amount (whichever is greatest.)
-
After two years, the certificate holder may force the property owner’s hand by initiating a Tax Deed Sale, essentially a foreclosure sale, but first, they must redeem all other tax certificates associated with the property. The Tax Deed Sale is public. The opening bid level for non-homesteaded properties is equal to the total value of all redeemed certificates associated with that property. If nobody bids, the certificate holder takes title to the property.
-
If nothing happens in seven years, the certificate expires.
What are the Risks?
-
If the certificate expires, it becomes worthless.
-
There might be higher priority liens on the property (e.g. IRS) which is not erased by the tax deed sale.
-
If the certificate holder initiates a Tax Deed Sale and nobody bids, the holder MUST take title. In most cases, this is not a bad thing, but what if the property is not worth the total redemption value of all certificates? The certificate holder not only acquires property by paying above market value, but also becomes liable for all future taxes.
For instance, the City of Palm Coast designated several hundred building lots as "drop lots." By ruling that these lots were not included within the city’s present storm water management system’s planned capacity, the city essentially declared them un-buildable. 141 Ulaturn Trail is a drop lot. It and 5 other drop lots are scheduled to be sold at the June 8, 2008 Tax Deed Sale.
Historical assessments of 141 Ulaturn Trail – a drop lot:
-
2006 = $12,500
-
2007 = $11,750
-
2008 = $5,000
-
2009 = $250
The opening bid for 141 Ulaturn is $736.08. Each of the five other drop lots also carry opening bids in excess of $700. If nobody bids, the certificate holder takes title, having already paid over $700 to redeem all outstanding certificates. If someone else bids, they must pay at least the opening bid price.
Evaluated individually, some drop lots may be deemed buildable in the future, but any potential buyer should do their homework first and recognize the risks. Tax Certificate and Tax Deed Sales are not for the uninformed or the faint of heart.
tax liens 2009
The tax lien information was very interesting, but for the life of me I oouldn’t understand why you needed to put Bobby Ginn front and center unless it was a way to attract attention. There were many others on that list that could have been named. Shame on you!!
Liened Properties
I agree with RoseAnn…this was a pretty pathetic marketing strategy. There was no need to include his name in the heading of your column.
Toby
Don’t listen to the naysayers. It is a tax cert on a high value property, it was bid on more than any other tax cert, and Bobby is a very high-profile, well known resident of Palm Coast. All of that makes it newsworthy!
Bobby Ginn
Bobby Ginn is or was a very public figure in this area. I was interested in this tid-bit of information, gave a dry story about the sale of tax certificates a reason to be read. Thanks, Toby keep up the good work.
Lordy! Lordy!
One minute he wants all the glory and praise he can get and now there is a problem with him receiving this kind of publicity? After what he has done to the lives of so many people and left his " vision" of how he wanted his developments to operate, etc. he deserves everything bad that his headed his way. There are some people like BG who are outright sociopaths. Having no regard for others will catch up to anyone. Boo Hoo!!!!!!
Reply to RoseAnn
Bobby has never been sought anonymity. He emblazoned everything he did with the Ginn name. But when you win big publicly, you lose big too.
II don’t think you can name anyone who has been more fair and balanced regarding Bobby Ginn than have I. There are two sides to Bobby. I report both of them. Of the thousands of properties in the tax certificate sale, his property attracted the most attention from bidders. That’s news.