Arizona Communal Properties Facing Tax Lien Foreclosures

Colorado City, Arizona’s 35 communal properties are facing tax lien foreclosures if they failed to settle unpaid taxes and interest within three years with lien purchasers. About 150 houses and land holdings in the polygamous community is in danger of foreclosure due to nonpayment of the 2007 property taxes amounting to $124,000.

The treasurer’s office of the Mohave County auctioned off its investment interests in these communal properties in Colorado City as part of a tax lien sale for February. As of August, the troubled properties owe the city more than $148,900 in unpaid taxes. Included in the delinquent properties are houses, school and commercial buildings, undeveloped land and a park where a zoo was once located.

The city of Colorado’s tax bill totaled $1.2 million in 2007. The properties at risk of tax lien foreclosures are included in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ communal holdings, the United Effort Plan (UEP) Trust.

By Cassiano Travareli