During Monday’s Marshall County Commissioner meeting, County Attorney Jim Clevenger brought up the delinquent property taxes for 415 Lake Shore Drive in Culver. The County Treasurer sent an email to the county attorney and commissioners on the issue.
The property, formerly known as the City Tavern burned in a blazing fire in October of 2019. The Town of Culver had to go to court to get approval to demolish the remaining structure that was owned by Scotty Van Hawk and the 27 Group, LLC. They took the case to the Appellate Court who supported the Marshall County Courts judgement in support of the town’s order for demolition.
The Town of Culver have been in litigation involving the demolition of the structure and recovery of its lien. As a result, the property was set for a Sheriff’s Sale last week. Clevenger said the Culver lien is about $71,000 and Marshall County has unpaid taxes of $35,503.59. He also said if the sale had gone through Culver had guaranteed the payment of the real-estate taxes as part of the minimum bid. There were also 3 or 4 parties interested in the property for sale at the sheriff’s sale.
Clevenger said the property was titled in the name of the 27 Group Inc., a defunct corporation formed by Scotty Van Hawk. He transferred title this summer to a foundation that doesn’t appear to exist in North Carolina somewhere. The County Attorney said the deed is fraudulent as far as he can tell, and Mr. Van Hawk filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy Monday afternoon and was able to get a stay on the sheriff’s sale so it did not go through.
Clevenger said he was not up-to-date on bankruptcies and asked for approval to hire an attorney who specializes in bankruptcies to assist the County Treasurer so they can get the property back on the sheriff’s sale.
Commissioner Stan Klotz asked if there was an option to recover the expenses the county has for this case and the County Attorney said he was unsure.
In a related matter, Commissioner Mike Burroughs noted that Hill Top Hotels, commonly known as the Holiday Inn Express paid their delinquent taxes of nearly $50,000.
