Four Red Deer property owners face possible sale of their land on Dec. 14 because they haven’t paid their taxes in recent years.
But if they are like other property owners in the last several years, they’ll pay their bills quickly so they don’t lose their land.
Deb Stott, controller for the Property Taxation Department, said that in the six years that she’s worked with the City of Red Deer, there hasn’t been one property sold through the city’s public auction. Surrounding municipalities have experienced this as well, she added.
“We’ve come really close to having a sale, within 12 hours,” said Stott. “It’s really reassuring when they’re cancelled. It’s not really a comfortable feeling selling somebody’s home.”
The auction is normally scheduled annually around this time of year. This year’s affects duplex property 36 Arnold Close and manufactured homes at 321 5344 76th St., 913 8834 59th Ave. and 18 6834 59th Ave. The sale begins at 11 a.m. in the Crimson Star meeting room at City Hall.
The sale is regulated according to the Municipal Government Act.
In March 2011, those properties and a number of others would have been put on the city’s taxation notification listing.
“If they are properties with land and buildings on them, we would have registered that with a caveat at Land Titles,” said Stott. “If the properties are manufactured homes, then we would have placed a lien through the Personal Property Registry.”
In March 2011, they had to have more than one year of taxes outstanding.
Stott said the city works hard with those property owners to try to get the taxes paid so that they can be removed from the sale.
Sometimes people renew their mortgage and don’t realize the mortgage company isn’t paying the taxes anymore, Stott said.
“We end up sending notices and they ignore them because they assumed the mortgage company was paying (the taxes),” said Stott. “We connect with them when we send them a copy of either an ad that the property is going to be sold, or we connect with them by phone. Then they realize it’s serious.”
She said the four properties listed for this sale actually represents a low number.
If the sale is cancelled, an announcement is posted at the east entrance of City Hall.
ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com