The County of Orange will schedule the county’s first auction of properties that have defaulted on taxes since 2021.

The OC Board of Supervisors recently approved the public auction that will be offering vacant land, homes and timeshares whose owners are at least five years behind in paying their taxes. There are properties throughout the county.

The Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office has the legal ability to auction off properties to recoup the delinquent taxes. According to the office, there are about 735 properties — 100 real properties and 635 timeshares — with some kind of delinquent taxes due, totalling $3.6 million. This auction, which will be held online, will include 64 properties that are “improved” such as with a home on it; 44 that are unimproved; and 154 timeshares.

Based on the minimum bid set for the properties, the sale of the improved properties would net at least $5.5 million, the sale of the unimproved properties another $912,000 and the timeshares $421,000. The county has had trouble selling timeshares in the past, according to a staff report to the board of supervisors.

The office will continue to try to reach the delinquent owners before the sale, staffers said.

Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector Shari Freidenrich hasn’t held a property auction in four years, something some supervisors have recently criticized her for.

“The taxpayers expect the treasurer-tax collector to do its duties in a common sense, efficient and cost-effective manner,” Freidenrich said previously in response to the criticisms. “Fixed auction costs are high and reduce owners’ realized equity at sale. With (Orange County having) the highest secured collection rate in the state at 99.2% and a strong real estate market for sellers, our need to conduct foreclosure auctions is minimal.”

The Board of Supervisors recently stripped Freidenrich of her role managing the county’s $17 billion investment pool, citing alleged mistreatment of staffers that came to their attention, as well as her overall management of the office, which included the lack of publicly held auctions.

A fact sheet released by the county on Feb. 25 said, “Regular auctions are an effective tool in that many delinquent taxpayers finally pay their taxes once they are notified their property is slated to be sold in auction. For those that do not pay, the proceeds from the auction go to paying off delinquent taxes.”

But Freidenrich said in her response, “To be cost-effective, it does not make sense to conduct auction sales annually.” She has also said she has addressed and made changes to her management style since the complaints were raised in previous years.

No date has been set for the auction, however, folks who are interested can receive updates at octreasurer.com/taxauctionreminders.

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