Boat tax sale churns up bargains

Charleston County unloads boats whose owners had delinquent taxes

Brad Nettles
The Post and Courier

Bill Coker, of Johns Island, with the 14-foot boat he bought Monday at Charleston County's first watercraft delinquent tax sale.

Bill Coker has bought some odd properties at delinquent tax sales in Charleston County.

He hasn't missed an auction since 1989.

He once bought a 300-foot-long street in a Mount Pleasant subdivision for $200. Another time, he bought a church for about $5,000 on Johns Island that he didn't know was on an overgrown, half-acre lot. He sold it back to the congregation at cost.

"One lady once called me the Ayatollah of tax sales," he said.

On Monday, he bought a 14-foot boat for $700 at Charleston County's first watercraft delinquent tax auction. The unpaid taxes on it were $98.92.

Did he get a steal? "I won't know until I see it," he said with a chuckle. "I hope I can go fishing with it. If not, I will sell it. ... You can buy all kinds of stuff at tax sales. They will sell you anything. I buy something every time."

Pictures of boats were shown on screens and handed out in a booklet for the tax sale at Charleston County Council's chamber in North Charleston.

Charleston County originally had 167 boats with delinquent taxes. But since posting them 45 days ago, that number dwindled to seven by the time of the tax sale as people paid their taxes, said Charleston County revenue officer John Guerry.

"We work hard to get in touch with them," Guerry said. "We don't want to sell someone's property, but we have an obligation to the taxpayers."

Monday's auction lasted just 10 minutes. It took longer to read the rules of the auction than it did to sell off the boats. Twenty-five people registered to bid.

Boats sold from $500 for a 25-foot Catalina, which had delinquent taxes of $306, to $2,200 for a 36-foot houseboat with overdue taxes of $1,856. "This is the shortest (sale) we've had in years," Charleston County Tax Collector Mary Scarborough said.

Reach Warren Wise at 745-5850 or wwise@postandcourier.com.