Custer County Issues Statement Correcting
The Tribune on Tax Lien Sale
Custer County Public Information Office Custer County Building 205 South 6th Street
P.O. Box 150
Westcliffe, CO 81252
719-783-2552
Release Date: Immediately
On Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022 The Wet Mountain Tribune is reporting that the Sangre de Cristo Sentinel botched Custer County’s Tax Lien Sale. Some of the information stated in the article is incorrect.
The County Treasurer sent a multiple page document to the Sangre de Cristo Sentinel for the Tax Lien Sale Notice. The Sentinel received this request and input into newspaper format. The proof was returned to the Treasurer’s office for approval. In the proofing process, the last page of the notice was missed.
It is required that the posting for the sale must be posted for 3 consecutive weeks. When there is an error like this the options are to cancel all tax lien sales and reschedule the sale to be able to comply with the 3 week posting rule OR continue the sale of the properties that were posted correctly (meeting the 3 week posting requirement) and post the 11 properties (not 10 properties as stated in the Wet Mountain Tribune article) that were not posted at a different time. The Treasurer decided that it would be best for the county to do the latter. At this time, taxes have been collected from 5 out of the 11 properties with delinquent taxes. If the Treasurer is unable to collect from the remaining 6 liens ($4,091.32 to date), then the collection of taxes is simply postponed. There is no loss in tax revenue to Custer County
To ensure that the people traveling to attend the sale were not inconvenienced and the county is able to collect delinquent taxes in a timely manner, the County Treasurer decided to proceed Since the 11 tax liens were not included in the legal notice, the attendees of the sale may not have known about the property or had the opportunity to bid because the tax bill was satisfied.
After doing a quick review of the tax lien sale notices from years in the past, the signature and seal were not included in those postings. (Reference: Wet Mountain Tribune Nov. 4, 2021, Nov 12, 2021 & Oct. 24, 2019 postings).
There is NO loss of county revenue. Any delinquent taxes that were not satisfied the day of the sale will be satisfied at the next sale. Since the majority of liens are satisfied prior to a sale, any potential additional revenue is a moot point.
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