For the first time in recent history, Bonner County will not be tax deeding or selling any property in 2025.
Bonner County Treasurer Clorrisa Koster told the Daily Bee that she was pleased to report that no property owners would lose their property to the county because of back taxes. According to Koster, 266 deed files were opened in June of last year for property owners that owed 2021 taxes. In January, 42 of those files remained unpaid, where ownership history reports were ordered. However, as of April 15 there were 25 properties remaining to be tax deeded, all of whose owners eventually paid their taxes to stop the tax deed process.
“This is a part of Idaho Code and my job that I do not enjoy, and my office works extremely hard to avoid any taxpayer losing their property because of unpaid property taxes,” said Koster. “These property owners have a lot of continued communication from my office and probably don’t like how much they hear from us, but I would rather have them be annoyed with us than to lose their property that they have worked for.”
The tax deeding process starts after a property owner is delinquent on their taxes for three years. On the third year, the county treasurer’s office is required to start a tax deed process, where the office will order a litigation report from a title company, notify all parties of interest, publish a notice and deed information in the newspaper and record documents. Fees incurred during this process are passed on to the property owner. This year, those costs averaged $417 per parcel.
After the treasurer’s office has taken the necessary steps above, a hearing is held with the Board of County Commissioners where the deed will be filed in favor of Bonner County — this transfers ownership of the property over to the county.
After the property is transferred to the county, the original owner has an opportunity to recover their property through a redemption deed by paying all the taxes owed along with any late fees or tax deeding costs before commissioners enter a contract of sale.
If a redemption deed isn’t filed, county commissioners will sell the property in a public auction within 14 months of the initial tax deed.
