Debt collectors and commercial property investors may be gathering at City Hall in Quincy May 22, when the city conducts a tax title assignment auction aimed at collecting severely delinquent taxes totaling more than $1.9 million due from 47 commercial and multifamily properties.

Under state law, the city can sell its receivable position to the highest bidder at public auction for, at a minimum, what the city is owed. Winning bidders at the 10 a.m. auction assume the city’s position and are entitled to 16 percent interest on the principal balance of the tax title account.

Assignees can elect to initiate foreclosure proceedings if the debt, plus interest, is not repaid.  The tax title assignment auction will allow the city to immediately collect what it is owed, "while avoiding the time and expense involved with tax foreclosure proceedings," the city said in a press release.

Braintree-based tax title auction experts Strategic Auction Alliance has been hired to conduct the sale. In April, Strategic Auction Alliance helped the town of Weymouth collect $800,000 in revenues from tax title assignments, redemptions and tax possession sales.