In re Lehigh Co. TCB Upset Sale – Appeal of Tchorzewski – Cmwlth. Court – September 20, 2021
https://www.pacourts.us/assets/opinions/Commonwealth/out/169CD20_9-20-21.pdf?cb=1
Real Estate Tax Sale Law, 72 P.S. §§5860.101-5860.803, does not require or entitle a successful bidder to notice of an owner’s objections to a tax sale. In In re: Tax Sale Held September 10, 2003 by Tax Claim Bureau of County of Lackawanna, 859 A.2d 15, 18 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2004) (Sposito), the Court specifically rejected the claim of a successful bidder that the tax claim bureau has the duty to give the successful bidder notice of an owner’s objections, or the responsibility to “file a petition to add [the successful bidder] as an additional party[.]” Id. To the contrary, the Tax Sale Law “does not make successful bidders, whose purchases have not been confirmed, parties to objection proceedings as a matter of course.” Sposito, 859 A.2d at 18.
Likewise, it is not the responsibility of the owner who files objections under Section 607 of the Tax Sale Law to name the successful bidder as a party or serve him with a copy of the owner’s objection petition. In re 2005 Sale of Real Estate by Clinton County Tax Claim Bureau Delinquent Taxes, 915 A.2d 719, 722- 23 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2007). Rather, “successful bidders must petition to intervene in order to be considered parties in an objection proceeding challenging a confirmation nisi.” Id. at 723. Accordingly, the Court has established, quite specifically, that successful bidders “are not indispensable parties for purposes of Owner’s objections to the confirmation nisi.” Id.
In summary, there is no language in the Real Estate Tax Sale Law to support Purchasers’ claim that they were indispensable parties to the proceeding that set aside the tax sale of Owner’s Property, for which they were the successful bidders. There is, however, binding precedent that has established that Purchasers, in their capacity as successful bidders, were not indispensable parties to that proceeding. Clinton County, 915 A.2d at 723.
