SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — The County is about to auction off hundreds of homes, condos, and timeshares, and the deadline to register is quickly approaching on Thursday, March 14.
March 14 deadline
Nearly 400 properties will be hitting the auction block, all of them in default on taxes owed for five or more years.
“There are a lot of reasons that people give. We hear that the dog ate the paperwork. We hear that the ex-spouse didn’t pay when he or she was ready to pay or didn’t pay, but the bottom line is that they need to pay the taxes,” said Dan McAllister, the Treasurer-Tax Collector for San Diego County.
Property owners have until March 21 to pay those back taxes to redeem their homes and keep them off the auction list.
“We’re not sure down to the last wire sometimes what’s still available and what’s not,” said McAllister. “All we know is that there’s a lot of attention this year particularly because the value of homes has gone way up.”
Twenty-seven residential and commercial properties remain on the list along with thirty-one parcels of vacant land, and more than three-hundred week-long timeshares.
“You absolutely do need to do research on every property that you want to bid on because sales are final and all final, and we can’t go back and reverse that,” said McAllister.
In order to bid, participants need to submit a refundable $1,000 deposit and pay a non-refundable $35 processing fee. The online auction runs March 22 - 27.
WATCH RELATED: San Diego County auctions off tax-defaulted properties | Register by March 14 to bid