Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Wednesday, October 31, 2018
(BEDFORD) - The Lawrence County Treasurer’s office held the first personal property mobile home sale under a new Indiana law today. There were 27 mobile homes on the sale and 7 of those sold.
New legislation brings to an end five years of concerted efforts by Lawrence and many other county treasurers to stem the flood of delinquent mobile home taxes across the state. The nature of "mobile" homes is that they can move and often change ownership. Indiana is a self-assessing state which means that the taxpayer is responsible for reporting changes to the county. The reality is that many homes are moved and change hands without proper notification. State law requires a mobile home owner to obtain a permit from the county treasurer's office in order to transfer the title at the BMV or move the home.
Partnerships with legislators, county treasurers, SRI, Inc., BMV, Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF), Association of Indiana Counties (AIC) and the Indiana Manufactured Housing Association (IMHA) resulted in the passage of Senate Enrolled Act 455 in 2017. This legislation was sponsored by State Senator Randall Head of District 18 (R-Logansport). This bill included a handful of minor fixes applicable to mobile homes, but the most impactful change was the creation of a new tax sale process for mobile homes tailored off of the existing sale process for real property.
Treasurer Stewart stated "It seems like such a long time, but getting to see the fruition of so much work by so many folks is very rewarding. The ability to sell delinquent mobile homes is a game changer for county treasurers."
Stewart shared a few statistical highlights of mobile home taxes. In 2014, the total taxes billed to taxpayers was $11.2 Million. Lawrence County's part of that total was just over $267,000.
The successful collection total was less than 70 percent. There were 420 delinquent mobile homes at the beginning of 2018. Collection efforts included a courtesy letter in January, a tax statement in April and a demand notice in June in addition to letters sent by the county's tax sale vendor, SRI.
Again, Stewart emphasized the phenomenal success of the process. It allowed her office to connect with taxpayers and increase the accuracy of county records.
1340 AM WBIW welcomes comments and suggestions by calling 812.277.1340 during normal business hours or by email at comments@wbiw.com
© Ad-Venture Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.