Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Land Sale

Commissioner of State Lands Charlie Daniels will offer for sale approximately 20 parcels of Clark County land at 2:00 p.m. September 24, at Bowen's Restaurant in Arkadelphia.

Registration for bidders begins at 1:30 p.m.

The State Land Office performs sales and redemption of lands certified for non-payment of real estate taxes. Also, the office advises county collectors of all tracts redeemed or sold in order that such acreage may be re-entered on tax books.

"We work to help property owners redeem their property and to reclaim delinquent tax dollars for Arkansas counties. In my office, we make every effort to work with the property owners to help them to keep their land. I don't want anyone to lose their land without proper notification from my office," Daniels said.

The parcels scheduled for sale through an oral auction procedure are delinquent for the 1991 tax year and include acreage, town lots and improvements only.

The property is sold to the highest bidder. Some mail-in bids may already have been received on various parcels. Those bids will be read at the beginning of the bidding on those parcels.

Successful bidders are required to pay the full purchase price on the day of the sale. That price includes the amount of the highest bid plus all taxes, penalty, interest and costs due, as shown in the State Land Office's Catalog of Tax Delinquent Lands.

The first $100 of each parcel must be paid in the form of cash, cashier's check or money order. The remainder may be paid by personal check.

Following the date of the sale, the owner of record has 30 days to redeem his property. If that occurs, the bidder will be fully refunded. Unless the owner of record redeems the property within the 30-day period, a limited warranty deed from the Commissioner of State Lands will be issued to the buyer.

Original owners, assigns or heirs can contest the validity of the sale in court for up to two years following the date the deed was issued.

"We regret offering anyone's land for sale. But those delinquent tax dollars - collected and earmarked for county services - have been a boon to local school districts which garner more that three-fourths of all tax dollars. And as a result of each sale, those delinquent parcels of land are no longer idle-they are returned to the county tax roll," said Daniels.

Sales conducted by the Commissioner of State Lands Office began in 1987. Since its inception, more than $50 million has been generated statewide and returned to the counties which comprise Arkansas.