St. Louis property owners who are behind on their real estate taxes will get a temporary reprieve prompted by the tornado that cut through the city last week.
The next few scheduled city-run sales of properties with delinquent taxes will be postponed until Oct. 14. The next round of sales was due to occur on June 5.
New suits filed against property owners with overdue taxes — a legal step that starts a one-year clock before affected properties may be sold by the city — will be postponed until August.
City officials announced the postponements Friday at a tornado-recovery briefing, as a measure to prevent people from losing their homes in the immediate aftermath of the natural disaster.
“I think we all need to take a step back and get focused on what's important. Get your house together, work some of the things that have just been totally disrupted over the last couple of weeks,” said Gregory F.X. Daly, the city’s collector of revenue.
“One of the more difficult tasks that [I have] is putting someone's house up for sale, when they haven't paid their taxes, during this particular time of tragedy and stuff that nobody could possibly imagine. It's the least we could do to put a pause on trying to put somebody's property up for sale in this difficult time,” Daly added.
The May 16 tornadoes claimed five lives and caused an estimated $1.6 billion or more in damage across the region. More than 5,000 properties sustained damage in the storms.
Additional resources are available for property owners who are at immediate risk of losing their homes to tax foreclosure.
The St. Louis Real Estate Tax Assistance Fund provides funds to qualified applicants to avoid losing their homes to a land tax sale. Applicants must not earn more than the median annual income for St. Louis households, which is currently $59,500 for a one-person household and $84,900 for a household with four residents, according to RETAF.
The fund enabled 34 homeowners to keep their property in 2023, according to RETAF. Twenty-two of the homes were located in north St. Louis.
The RETAF also helps homeowners apply for home-repair funds, and offers tools to help build good credit and increase financial literacy.
