Cullman County Revenue Commissioner, Barry Willingham, announced today a significant change for the annual tax lien auction. Originally scheduled for May 5, 2020 at the Cullman County Courthouse, the tax lien auction for unpaid 2019 ad valorem property taxes is rescheduled for Thursday, May 28 via *online* auction through govease.com.
“This change will allow bidders and personnel to maintain appropriate social distancing as we begin recovery from the coronavirus pandemic office closings,” Willingham noted. “By rescheduling to later in May, property owners will have had additional opportunities to resolve as many unpaid 2019 taxes as possible. Taxes were actually due October 1, 2019 and became delinquent on January 2 of this year, so everyone has had ample time to pay these past-due taxes.”
On April 20, 2020, the Revenue Commissioner mailed an additional delinquent notice to all past-due property owners with the following information:
This notice is to inform you of a tax lien auction related to unpaid property taxes on the property described above. All unpaid property taxes will be sold via tax lien auction at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 28, 2020.
Code of Alabama Title 40-10-182 (a)(1) requires issuance of this notice. If you have any questions or if you no longer own the property described above, please contact the Revenue Commission Office
at (256) 775-4847, 775-4862, or 775-4942.
For additional information, e-mail the Revenue Commission staff at revenue@co.cullman.al.us.
Rules of the Cullman County
Online Tax Lien Auction
The 2020 Cullman County tax lien auction for unpaid 2019 ad valorem property taxes will be managed through the online auction service, GovEase.
This document serves as a list of general rules for Alabama GovEase online auctions. Different states utilizing GovEase may have different rules for auctions. Please read this document and electronically sign as an indication of your agreement to the rules of the auction.
- The Cullman County online auction will begin Thursday, May 28, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. CST. The tax liens for all delinquent parcels will be sold one at a time until all liens are sold through the auction process. This auction will be conducted exclusively online.
- Pre-bidding will open prior to the online auction. GovEase will notify all bidders the date and time when Pre-bidding will open. Bidders must be registered and approved to bid by Cullman County to participate in Pre-bidding.
- Payment must be arranged with the Cullman Revenue Commissioner’s office before the online tax lien auction begins. Bidders who do not pre-arrange payment with the Cullman County Revenue Commissioner prior to the auction will not be approved to bid.
Bidder payment instructions:
- In-person cash or certified funds will be accepted at the Revenue Commissioner’s office located at 500 2nd Avenue SW, Cullman, AL 35055.
- Payments by wire transfer will be accepted per the instructions of the Revenue Commissioner’s office. For wire transfer instructions, call (256) 775-4862.
- All payments for liens auctions won must be made by 2:30 p.m. CST on Friday, May 29, 2020.
- A tax lien shall be sold at auction to the person who pays all taxes, interest, penalties, fees, and costs due on the property, including a $20.00 origination cost, $20.00 auction fee, and $5.00 lien certificate fee, and who, in addition, bids the lowest interest rate on the amount required to be paid via redemption on any lien in the auction.
- The beginning interest rate will start at 12% per annum, and additional bids may be made at a rate less than the immediately preceding bid in 1% increments.
- Bidders will enter their requested interest rate only for each respective parcel on which they are bidding.
- Bidders may enter a “Minimum Interest Rate Bid” at any time after the parcels have been loaded into the “Preview Auctions” page and pre-bidding has been enabled. This will register the minimum interest rate amount a bidder is willing to bid once the parcel is open for live online bidding.
- The bid clock will reset to 10 seconds each time a bid is placed within the last 10 seconds of that auction. Once bids cease and time has expired, the auction will close, and the lien will be sold to the bidder who bid the lowest interest rate.
- Ties of lien bids at 0% interest are broken by a random numerical generator.
- All parcels should be fully researched by a bidder prior to the auction start. Neither GovEase nor the Cullman County Revenue Commission can offer investment or legal advice. Should bidders have specific legal or investment questions, they should seek the advice of a competent legal professional.
- All third-party images obtained and provided by GovEase may not be 100% accurate. Any parcel without a valid address will show a default view which does not represent the actual property for which the tax lien is being auctioned. It is the bidder’s responsibility to carefully research each parcel on which they intend to bid.
- The Revenue Commissioner has the right to re-bid or to remove a parcel’s lien at any time during or after the auction if he so chooses. This is at the sole discretion of the tax official, Barry Willingham, Cullman Revenue Commissioner.