Oct. 17--Unpaid property taxes have put control of more than 150 homes in a polygamous community in jeopardy and more may soon be at risk -- part of a growing financial crisis that has reignited a rift between sect members and a court-appointed overseer.

Investment interests in 35 large, communal properties that are part of the United Effort Plan Trust were auctioned in a Mohave County tax lien certificate sale in February. The sale was triggered after about $124,000 of the $1.2 million total tax bill in Colorado City went unpaid in 2007.

The move means those who picked up the liens will be able to foreclose on the properties in three years if the back-due taxes plus accrued interest charges are not paid. That tab had surpassed $148,910 as of August, according to the Mohave County Treasurer's Office.

The UEP Trust properties now saddled with the tax liens include homes, commercial and school buildings, vacant land and a 54-acre site that features a community park and a zoo.

The trust, created in 1942, holds virtually all property in the border-straddling towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, where most residents are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Who's to blame?

Bruce R. Wisan, the fiduciary who has overseen the trust since 2005, said Thursday that both FLDS and residents who do not belong to the sect failed to pay 2007 taxes.

The situation

was exacerbated by the sect's refusal to work with him, causing a "huge communication problem" about who paid what and for which properties, said Wisan, appointed after Utah officials alleged sect leaders were mishandling the trust.

But an attorney for the FLDS says sect members paid taxes on their homes in 2007. Rod Parker lays responsibility for the situation with Wisan.

"The problem was common parcels and farmland occupied by non-FLDS people who were placed there by Bruce Wisan," Parker said. "The property taxes weren't paid on those portions of the properties."

Another problem, he added, "was [Wisan] failed to apply for tax exemptions that had previously been available for many of these properties." That increased the community's tax burden, he noted.

The sect, as a religious organization, got exemptions for properties that included Cottonwood Park, the zoo and private schools.

Wisan said he complained to the Mohave County Assessor about the loss of the exemptions and was able to get a "blanket" 25 percent reduction in the community's overall tax bill.

"I thought that was a real benefit to the trust," he said.

A worsening situation .

Because the community is not subdivided, taxes are assessed on large parcels of land that may include numerous homes.