Today I went downtown to pick up my tax sale certificate for which I paid $40,000 a dozen days ago. The paperwork I was given before the auction stated I could pick it up anytime after 8:00 AM Monday (yesterday) at the auditor's office. I arrived there near 11:00 AM today with my stamped receipt (as required), copy of my cashier's check for the $40,000 and photo ID (just in case). What do I hear when I get there? "They aren't ready yet. We'll probably have them ready later this week. We'll call you when you can come in and get yours."

Don't you all just love dealing with municipalities and other monopolies like that? No excuses, no apologies, just take this and live with it. Of course when I pointed out the fact that my form specifically stated it would be ready the woman behind the counter says, "Well, 'I' didn't say that."

I asked her who was responsible and she said she'd find out and started to walk away as though that should satisfy me. I said, "Good, I'll wait here for them." The look on her face was priceless. Apparently no one had ever done this before.

A supervisor showed up and at least attempted some lame, half-hearted excuse about a non-specific computer problem. I told her a phone call telling me this so I wouldn't waste a morning and pay for parking to find out there was no reason to have done so would have been nice. There was no reply since I'd already been told they were planning on calling everyone when the certificates were done. The potential excuse of being unable to call was already gone.

The supervisor then (finally) offered to mail my certificate to me and had me fill out a tax ID form at the counter. Apparently, needing you to go there and fill out that form is the ONLY reason they don't just mail them as a matter of course, anyhow. I couldn't help but wonder why they don't simply have you fill out that form when you pay for the certificates after the auction and then mail them all out.

Of course, I've long known that it's thinking like that which keeps me out of government and corporate work. It's too simple, too logical, too sensible and too efficient. No way can a bureaucracy deal with something like that. Think of the jobs it'd cost.

Now I've listed them in my Palm Pilot to call every day until they get the certificate to me. The irony of this whole thing is I still don't know what good the certificate actually is. I don't think it's any kind of negotiable instrument or anything but, until I see mine, I guess I won't know. ;o)

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), September 25, 2001

Answers

Gary, please explain what a tax sale certificate is and why it costs $40,000. I'm curious what this is all about. I assume it has something to do with purchasing real estate that has been taken over because of back taxes but I never realized you had to put up that much money just for the privilege that you might purchase something. I would like to hear more about this.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), September 26, 2001.

Colleen, I'll be happy to explain all of that but would ask that you first scroll down to the bottom here to the 'archives' section and go to 'Land' and look at the original post (four below this one in the archives) and a subsequent correction (two below this one in the archives). I think most of your questions will be answered in those. Whatever isn't addressed I'll be happy to answer if you simply post them here.

I'm trying to avoid what would be a rather long (as you'll see when you read those) explanation that many have already read recently. Please don't take this as any effort on my part to be short or less than helpful here. That couldn't be further from my goal. Please post again after you've looked at those and let me know what you think.

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), September 26, 2001.

Now that I've been to the archives, sorry I asked!!! :)

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), September 27, 2001.