Tuesday, March 31, 2015

tax sale - reasonable efforts to locate taxpayer


777 L.L.P. v. Luzerne County TCB v. V. Mannino (Pa. Cmwlth March 30, 2015). 

 
Judicial tax sale vacated for failure to serve the taxpayer and failure to use “reasonable efforts” to locate the taxpayer, where the tax claim bureau did not conduct a search of current telephone directories, searched property records only by property ID number, not the taxpayer’s name, and failed to thoroughly review its own file to ascertain the taxpayer’s current address. 

Tax sales - right to installment agreement - payment of at least 25% of taxes due



 In Re: Sale by TCB of Bedford County of Tax Parcel G.14-0.00-007 - Appeal of Vignola (Pa. Cmwlth. March 30, 2015). 


Where an owner has paid at least 25% of the taxes due, the tax claim bureau has an affirmative duty to inform the owner of the option to enter into an installment agreement, and the failure to do so will invalidate a subsequent tax sale. [citations omitted]