(a) Each tract or lot certified by the Auditor pursuant to 11A-3-44 of this code shall be sold by him or her at public auction at the courthouse of the county to the highest bidder during the courthouses normal operating hours on any business working day within 90 days after the Auditor has certified the lands as required by 11A-3-44 of this code. The payment for any tract or lot purchased at a sale shall be made by check, U. S. currency, or money order payable to the Auditor and delivered before the close of business on the day of sale. No part or interest in any tract or lot subject to such sale, or any part thereof of interest therein, that is less than the entirety of such unredeemed tract, lot, or interest, as the same is described and constituted as a unit or entity in said list, shall be offered for sale or sold at such sale. If the sale shall not be completed on the first day of the sale, it shall be continued from day to day between the same hours until all the land shall have been offered for sale.
(b) A private, nonprofit, charitable corporation, incorporated in this state, which has been certified as a nonprofit corporation pursuant to the provisions of Section 501(c)(3) of the federal Internal Revenue Code, as amended, which has as its principal purpose the construction of housing or other public facilities and which notifies the Auditor of an intention to bid and subsequently submits a bid that is not more than five percent lower than the highest bid submitted by any person or organization which is not a private, nonprofit, charitable corporation as defined in this subsection, shall be sold the property offered for sale at public auction by the Auditor pursuant to the provisions of this section at the public auction as opposed to the highest bidder.
The nonprofit corporation referred to in this subsection does not include a business organized for profit, a labor union, a partisan political organization, or an organization engaged in religious activities, and it does not include any other group which does not have as its principal purpose the construction of housing or public facilities.