A Maricopa County company that pays back taxes on properties across Arizona in hopes of one day securing deeds to the properties is asking the Arizona Supreme Court to restore its deed to a commercial property in Nogales.
It is estimated more than 2,000 investors hold nearly 90,000 back tax liens in Arizona. In Maricopa County alone, tax liens could be issued for more than 10,000 parcels during the county’s next auction on Feb. 8, 2022.
By law, Arizona property taxes have the highest lien priority, and about 98 percent of liens are eventually paid off by property owners within the three-year redemption period. But sometimes an investor is able to go through the lengthy legal process to foreclose on a property and obtain the deed.
That is what Advanced Property Tax Liens Inc. did in 2019 on a tax lien it obtained from the Santa Cruz County Treasurer’s Office in February 2015 for a commercial property in Nogales. Now, the company is hoping the Arizona Supreme Court will reverse a local judge’s ruling which voided the deed issued to APTL when the property owner did not redeem the tax lien.
Court records show the material facts of the APTL case are undisputed, such as the verbal agreement between Victalina Carreon and Jorge Othon in late 2014 or early 2015 for Othon to purchase a vacant building Carreon owned in Nogales. The property’s purchase price was $450,000 minus an amount Carreon owed for unpaid property taxes.
The sales agreement was never put into writing, but Othon made payments to Carreon using money “on which he had avoided paying taxes,” according to court records. Soon after the commercial property was “a fully occupied commercial property” with normal business hours, according to court records.
But Carreon never applied any of Othon’s payments to the delinquent property taxes. As a result, APTL purchased a tax lien on the property during a February 2015 auction by Santa Cruz County and paid the outstanding property taxes and accrued interest.
Fast forward to September 2017 when Othon finished paying Carreon and received a notarized deed listing himself as the new property owner. He chose to not record the deed with the Santa Cruz County Recorder, nor did he inform the county’s assessor or treasurer of his ownership of the property. Othon also failed to provide county officials a mailing address for tax bills or valuation notices.
Instead, Othon allowed the property to remain in Carreon’s name.
In January 2018, and with the three-year tax lien redemption period near expiration, APTL mailed Carreon two notices that the company intended to foreclose on its 2015 tax lien. The 30-day notices, one mailed to the physical address of the commercial property and one to Carreon’s last known residence, were returned by the U.S. Postal Service as unclaimed.
Eventually APTL filed a foreclosure action in Santa Cruz County Superior Court naming Carreon as the property owner. A process server hired by APTL attested that service was attempted at Carreon’s last known address, an empty residence.
With no forwarding address from the post office, APTL published a notice of its tax lien foreclosure action in a Nogales newspaper. The company then filed a court notice in December 2018 allegedly Carreon had been properly served via the newspaper and had failed to answer.
A default judgment was entered by the court against Carreon, allowing the county to issue a treasurer’s deed conveying the Nogales property to APTL in March 2019. The company immediately recorded the deed as the new owner, but there was a sticking point – Othon and his 2017 unrecorded deed.
APTL filed a complaint for quiet title of the property while Othon filed a counterclaim seeking to void the treasurer’s deed and have his deed from Carreon recorded. In the end, Judge Denneen Peterson voided the default judgment but not because of Othon.
Instead, she ruled APTL failed to adequately comply with state law when notifying Carreon, as the property owner of record, that the company intended to pursue foreclosure of the 2015 tax lien. APTL attempted to serve the notices on particular addresses instead of a specific person as required by state law, Peterson ruled.
The judge’s ruling voiding APTL’s deed to the property was recently affirmed by the Arizona Court of Appeals. The appellate opinion described APTL’s deficiency:
“After both notices were returned unopened and unclaimed, APTL never approached personnel at the Property—the situs address—or at neighboring buildings to seek additional information regarding Carreon’s whereabouts,” the opinion states.
Now the company has filed a petition for review to the Arizona Supreme Court.
It could be weeks or months before the Arizona Supreme Court decides whether to consider APTL’s petition for review. If Peterson’s ruling holds up, APT still owns the original 2015 tax lien and can begin the process again to assert its interest.
The Arizona Association for Economic Development (AAED) will host a two-day virtual Rural Housing Symposium later this month, bringing together developers, citizens, elected officials, and myriad stakeholders to address the challenges facing rural housing in Arizona.
The Jan. 12 and 13 virtual event will be held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. each day on the Whova platform. There is a $60 registration fee for the event, which will include a discussion of the current state of rural housing, the overall importance of housing to a community, housing programs and resources, community and regional solutions, how to leverage data, and workforce housing.
Among the Day One speakers is Evelyn Causga, director of community and economic prosperity for the Center for the Future of Arizona. She will be joined by Tim Suan, deputy town manager for the Town of Wickenburg, to discuss the current state of rural housing in Arizona.
“Housing is playing a pivotal role in the overall economic success of every community,” Suan says. “This makes housing the most important topic in the state of Arizona.”
Day One’s keynote speaker will be Mary Chicoine of the Verde Valley Economic Council. She will lead a discussion with Jennifer Perry of the Arizona Community Foundation on turning data into action for community and regional solutions. They will be joined by officials from Clarksdale, Cottonwood, and Sedona.
Tom Simplot, director of the Arizona Department of Housing, will provide the Day Two keynote speech about the importance of housing. Other Day Two participants will be Thomas Ryan of Housing America Corp.; Jeff Hays with USDA Rural Development; Sarah Darr from the city of Flagstaff; and Devonna McLaughlin of Housing Solutions of Northern Arizona.
Also announced as participating in the symposium are Alison Cook-Davis of the ASU Morrison Institute for Public Policy; Joan Serviss with AZ Housing Coalition; Sandi Flores of Catholic Charities; Jerry Stabley with AZ American Planning Association; Sheila Harris of Harris Consulting; Mark Lambing for Dominium Apartments; Rick Merritt and Daniel Court of Elliot D Pollack & Company; Kim Covington with Arizona Community Foundation; Ruby Dhillon-Williams from Arizona Department of Housing; and Sally Schween of Gorman & Co.
Arizona jumped to the national forefront of telehealth in May 2021 when Gov. Doug Ducey signed emergency legislation that dramatically expanded options for accessing safe and reliable health care services.
“Our state now has the broadest telemedicine law in the nation, providing greater opportunity for safe and reliable medical services,” Ducey’s office noted Wednesday in a “2021 Year in Review” statement. “Expansive telehealth helps all Arizonans, especially low-income families and those living in rural areas, connect with their medical providers.”
Telehealth or telemedicine is the use of digital technology -devices such as computers, telephones, smartphones, and tablets- to access health care services without needing to be in the same room or even the same state as the medical provider.
In May 2020, the health care consulting firm McKinsey & Company noted the total annual revenue of U.S. telehealth players was an estimated $3 billion prior to COVID-19. That U.S. revenue stream could jump in a post-pandemic market to $250 billion as health care services continue to shift to a telehealth platform, or what they refer to as virtual or virtually-enabled care.
A July 2021 updated report by McKinsey & Company noted the utilization of virtual care services is now 38 times higher than before COVID-19. This change has been driven by an increased willingness of consumers / patients to embrace telehealth, as well as an increased willingness of providers to offer such services.
And as seen in Arizona, another key factor in the growth of telehealth is the regulatory and statutory changes, which enable greater access and reimbursement.
“Patients and medical professionals know what’s best for their needs, and we’re working to make sure they have access to those services,” Ducey said when signing the legislation in the spring.
The governor pointed at the time to the benefits for vulnerable populations and the fact snowbirds visiting Arizona could receive telemedicine from their home state due to Arizona’s new law. In addition, doctors are assured equal compensation from insurance companies for telemedicine services.
Meanwhile, McKinsey & Company noted in July that investor activity continues to grow at record levels.
“Investment in virtual health continues to accelerate,” the firm noted in its July update, adding that total venture capital investment into the digital health space in the first half of 2021 totaled $14.7 billion. That is more than all of the investment in 2020 ($14.6 billion) and nearly twice the investment in 2019 ($7.7 billion), the update noted.
The University of Arizona’s College of Medicine operates the Arizona Telemedicine and Telehealth Center. It provides telemedicine services, distance learning, informatics training, and telemedicine technology assessment capabilities to communities throughout Arizona.
Cochise County officials are hoping someone with experience in the repurposing of historic properties will want to purchase, renovate, and redevelop the former Bisbee High School, whose exterior dates to 1914 and most of its interior to 1920.
The three-story, four-level school designed by architect Norman Foote Marsh is part of three parcels encompassing about 1.4 acres within the City of Bisbee. The property sits within the Bisbee Historic District, which is itself included on the National Register of Historic Places.
A recently announced request for proposals (RFP) notes Cochise County intends to sell the property “to a developer for subsequent conversion from governmental office use to multi-unit residential, which may also incorporate some retail and office use.” The city council recently approved the county’s rezoning request to Commercial Mixed Use (CM-2).
According to county officials, the ideal developer would have knowledge and experience in property redevelopment, adaptive reuse of historic properties, and historic preservation. Any conveyance by the county would likely include a permanent easement to preserve and protect the building’s exterior.
“The County also expects to enter into a mutually acceptable land development agreement with the successful proposer that will govern the subsequent rehabilitation of the building and the redevelopment of the property,” the RFP states.
Despite the complexities that can come with repurposing the building, there is an interesting peculiarity to Marsh’s three-story, four-level design for the school: as a result of being built on a hillside, all of the building’s levels to have a street-level entrance, a fact attested to by Ripley’s Believe-It-or-Not.
Meanwhile, another historic high school is for sale in Cochise County – the Tombstone Union High School built in 1922 along what is now State Route 80.
For the last 15 years, myriad realtors have tried to find a buyer for the two-story high school which has sat empty since 2006. The 4.5-acre property includes a separate gymnasium and science building, all of which are located near the Tombstone Historic District and historic Allen Street.
Anyone interested in more information about the sale of Tombstone HS can call Superintendent Robert Devere at 520-457-2217.
While many Arizona businesses see a productivity downturn over the holidays, small business owners know there is often little time for respite. And that is where the Arizona Small Business Development Center (AZSBDC) Network can be of help.
The AZSBDC Network works with small business owners to preserve and create small business jobs and revenue by helping launch, grow, and sustain businesses in every stage of development. There is also confidential support for small businesses seeking guidance on federal, state, and local contracting opportunities.
The free services offered by AZSBDC includes resource assistance, training programs, and free one-on-one counseling with specially trained advisors who have small business ownership and management experience. Several training programs are available each month on subjects from how to decide if being a small business owner is a right choice, to business plan development and review, and addressing cyber security issues for a small business.
Many of the training programs are provided online, while others are conducted in person at one of the 10 AZSBDC offices (Casa Grande, Flagstaff, Kingman, Phoenix, Prescott, Show Low, Sierra Vista, Thatcher, Tucson and Yuma) or multiple satellite offices located throughout the state. There are also some Spanish language programs.
Upcoming online subjects include:
Jan. 5 – Is a Small Business Right for Me?
Jan. 11 – 10 Steps to Starting a Business in AZ
Jan. 12 – 10 Steps to Cyber Secure Your Small Business
Jan. 19 – AZ Business Startup Clinic
AZSBDC can also assist with advice and resources for small business owners trying to navigate the ever-changing COVID-19 landscape. More information about the network of Small Business Development Centers in Arizona can be found at https://azsbdc.net/
