They actually just want you to start contributing property taxes into the gubmint pot; I’m sure they’ll overlook any neglect of the property as long as they’re getting quarterly payments to pay the person who collects the quarterly payments.
I wonder if you were to buy one of these $1 properties if the assessment would be on $1 or on the value of the property when last occupied? Or if you need to pay all of the back taxes before you can buy the property for a dollar.
I’d think the assessment certainly couldn’t be $1, but they probably don’t care about the back taxes as that might scare off a potential sucker I mean buyer. Some places use formulas to calculate assessed values that include square footage, number of bathrooms, property size, etc.; they’d probably have to use something like that (as $1 gives them nothing, while the real market value actually is $1). Here in my area the municipalities went hunting for illegal apartments; they didn’t make the homeowners remove them, they just increased their property taxes. They’re afraid that the de-population here in NJ would accelerate if they enforced residency regulations in terms of number of units.