SUNDRE – Town council recently set reserve bids and an auction date on three residential properties that have fallen back several years in tax arrears.
Tax recovery sales are an annual process that is strictly regulated under the Municipal Government Act, Chris Albert, director of corporate services, reminded council during the regular June meeting.
“Each tax sale is a multi-year process,” said Albert. “The properties that are currently in tax sale for this year are at least three years behind in their taxes,” he explained, adding that’s among the legislative requirements mandated by the provincial government.
Additionally, the owner of a property that’s fallen into arrears must also be notified by the municipality both leading up to the matter coming before council as well as once again afterwards, he said.
The minimum reserve bid is established at the property’s fair market value, which is typically determined by the assessor, said Albert.
One motion was made for each respective property, but they all shared the same date, time and location for the auction; if it even ends up going through.
As a point of clarification to confirm her understanding, Coun. Jaime Marr asked Albert, “If the individual that owns the property comes to the town with full payment, this is removed – is that right?”
Albert said that is indeed the case.
“The property owner has until 8:59 a.m on October 23 to present full payment,” he said. “Payment that is received up until that point in time, the tax sale gets stopped immediately.”
While there were technically five properties on the tax sale list, Albert said sale dates and processes would only be set for three residential properties. That’s because the assessor recommended going through a formal appraisal process for the other two non-residential properties, he said.
“Once we get the appraisal process back, which will probably take a couple of months, we will bring those two other properties back to council to establish their tax sale requirements,” he added.
For each of the residential properties, administration recommended setting an auction sale date of Oct. 23 starting at 9 a.m. at the town office.
Sale requirements include a 10 per cent deposit plus any proportioned amount of the current year’s taxes being paid by the new owner and due within 30 days from the auction date, or the deposit is forfeit and town may consider the next bid.
Council set reserve bids of $202,000, $130,000 and $230,000.
