County Property Auction Set for January 14

By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
OTSEGO COUNTY

As of press time, 155 properties across Otsego County will go up for auction on Wednesday, January 14. The properties have not had their taxes paid for three consecutive years. Further tax auction details can be found at https://aarauctions.com/servlet/Search.do?auctionId=5959.

The properties include undeveloped parcels as well as residential and commercial land. Starting bid values range from the hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars.

County Treasurer Allen Ruffles, a Republican, told AllOtsego the large number of properties was due to a three-year halt on auctions due to a Supreme Court case. In Tyler v. Hennepin County (2023), the Supreme Court ruled that municipalities must allow tax auction sale surplus over the owed taxes to go to the former property owners rather than depositing it into their own municipal funds. In the interim, auctions could not occur.

“Back to when I started in 2018, we usually have around 50 parcels, sometimes more (70ish) sometimes less (40ish),” he wrote. “So because this is three years’ worth, if you divide the 155 by three, it’s about 50 parcels which would be about average.”

Ruffles added that the final number could fluctuate slightly with further court review of the parcels.

A Sixth Judicial District Court judge needed to sign off on the list of properties, and did so in recent weeks.