St. Charles auctioning properties through site similar to St. John

Published 12:03 am Saturday, July 29, 2017

HAHNVILLE — St. Charles Parish is going online to sell vacant land and properties to potential buyers.

Adjudicated properties — those placed in governmental hands because local property taxes have not been paid — are being auctioned at civicsource.com.

Planning and Zoning Director Michael Albert said the partnership between St. Charles Parish and CivicSource helps return previously vacant land and properties back “to use and commerce.”

“This program saves taxpayers money on maintenance costs and provides opportunities for current and future residents to build homes and businesses in the parish at very affordable rates,” Albert said.

The full listing of properties is available at civicsource.com, which includes commercial and residential options.

A virtual information session on purchasing adjudicated properties is available at events.civicsource.com.

Representatives from CivicSource are scheduled to present on the new auction process at the parish council meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at the St. Charles Parish Courthouse, 15045 River Road in Hahnville.

Public Information Officer Tristan Babin touted CivicSource as the leading provider of digitized due process compliance and online auctions for tax-distressed real estate during a release this week.

The effort is similar to one launched in February of 2016 between the St. John the Baptist Parish’s District Attorney’s Office and CivicSource, which auctions property adjudicated to the Parish.

D.A. Bridget A. Dinvaut said the St. John partnership provides a beneficial and necessary service to create sale of tax delinquent properties of five years or more.

“Before we engaged the expertise of Civic Source, property owners who failed to pay property taxes faced no consequence for not doing so, yet these same property owners enjoyed the privileges of services made possible through property tax revenue generated in our parish,” Dinvaut said.

According to Dinvaut, their agreement with Civic Source provides an option to redeem property by paying back taxes or the property is subject to sale at an open online auction.

“Although, in the past, the Parish had contracted with general services law firms to address the tax delinquent property problem in St. John Parish, none of these firms had the real estate law expertise and experience currently possessed by myself and the District Attorney’s Office Civil Chief, Attorney Keith Green Jr. to understand the complexities of the laws and procedures to implement a successful program in compliance with the law,” Dinvaut said.