When does the county "lower the boom" ...

[EightFingers]

...regarding upaid property taxes? There's one house (not saying which one - sorry Dragon!) that's at least five years behind. Bill is almost 11,000.00 with 2,000.00 of that in interest. [:0]

[kalakoa]

You're assuming County has a "process".

I think they "can" take action at 3 years unpaid, but they probably don't bother unless there's money on the table -- the lot in question might not be worth $11K, or maybe it's owned by someone's hairdresser's cousin's brother-in-law.

[Rob Tucker]

Periodically delinquent properties are auctioned off for back taxes.

[hooligal]

you can ask the staff at the real property tax office when the property will go up for auction (if it remains unpaid). Tell them the TMK and they can look up how far in arrears the property is, then calculate when it's supposed to 'go'. I was told they rotate neighborhoods for the tax auctions, so even if the property is overdue the 'right' amount of time/money to kick it into auction, the property won't go actually go to auction until that particular *neighborhood* rotates into the auction set.

* I'd rather fail at happiness than succeed at misery *

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

As hooligal mentioned, they generally focus on particular subdivisions and neighborhoods for each tax auction sale. I've seen a few properties 10 years behind in payments (not often) although I would say the average tends to be in the 4-6 year range. Here's the county web page for property tax auctions, although there are no properties listed now, just their FAQ:
http://www.hawaiipropertytax.com/Forms/H...es_FAQ.htm

[Rene]

Also, if the property is owned by a Japanese national, it's very rare that it will go up on the block. The theroy is, supposedly they can't confirm the owners were ever served proper notice over seas. So their properties get a pass.

[EightFingers]

The property (a house) is not owned by a Japanese national. They don't live on-island, tho', so maybe what you're saying may apply here.

[csgray]

I think it only applies to Japanese nationals living in Japan. A realtor told me that it had to do with international law and treaties between the United States and Japan that make it virtually impossible for Hawaii counties to seize these properties for back taxes. We looked at one property where the back taxes owed were far more than the asking price and the buyer had to pay the back taxes. Mainland owners can be sent registered letters informing them of their status, Japan residents can't.

Carol

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

There was one round of Japanese owned properties that went on the auction block, about 6-8 years ago. Most of the back taxes were long past due, much longer than they would be for the usual sales. Maybe there is a specific legal procedure required to auction foreign owned properties, so the county holds them back, does all of the paperwork at once, and then sells all those properties at one time.

Many of the property owners cannot be reached, as they have died, or moved, but it's possible the county still has to show they made an attempt to contact the owner with a registered letter as Carol noted.