City attorneys, DCD outline new state requirements for tax-foreclosed property sales

City officials told the Milwaukee Common Council's Judiciary & Legislation Committee on April 14 that state law and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling have forced changes to how the city lists and sells properties acquired through tax foreclosure.

The city attorney, Evan Lehi, said the Supreme Court's Tyler v. Hennepin County decision requires jurisdictions to return any surplus proceeds from tax-foreclosed property sales to the prior owner. He said the Legislature then enacted changes, most recently 2023 Wisconsin Act 207, that remove Milwaukee's prior exemption and add a public-listing requirement and a statutory right for certain former owners to repurchase properties prior to sale. "There are two major changes to how we operate: a listing requirement ... and a statutory right of the former owner to repurchase," Lehi said.

That statutory right, officials said, applies to single-family…