HOLLIDAYSBURG – The Blair County Commissioners will require interested bidders for the upcoming tax arrears sale to complete a form and register at least 12 days prior to the sale.
The new procedure was approved on Thursday.
The county’s upset tax sale, which gives buyers a clear right to tax on defaulting property, is slated for September 22nd.
Polly Cardone, director of the Blair County Tax Claim Bureau, said anyone wishing to bid on the sale must register by September 10th.
In the past, bidders participating in district tax sales registered on the day of the sale, but newer state legislation requires earlier registration and information from a prospective bidder, which includes an affidavit that the bidder is not in default of payment Property tax is in other Pennsylvania parishes and that the bidder does not have local utility bills over a year old.
The affidavit must include a statement that the person is not acting as an intermediary for a person who is barred from participating in the sale and that the person has not been charged with uncorrected housing code violations in the past three years.
The 12-day window of time between registration and sale will allow the information to be verified by local communities, Cardone said.
Prospective bidders are required to pay a registration fee of US $ 25 per application under the new Tax Breach Act, which goes into effect August 1st.
Another new fee, approved Thursday by Commissioners Bruce Erb, Laura Burke, and Amy Webster, is $ 350 for a title search ($ 200 for RVs) to be included in the annual court sale. This requirement will also take effect on August 1st.
The district board also approved several increases in current fees to meet rising operating costs within the Tax Claim Bureau.
For example, installment letters and dunning letters cost $ 4 each, which is an increase of 50 cents per document.
New property tax notices and warnings increased by $ 5 to $ 15 per notice.
Additional warnings of the upcoming upset tax sale will cost $ 5 per letter, an increase of $ 1.50.
Also on Thursday, commissioners approved a Human Service Block grant plan of $ 6.7 million and accepted grants of $ 30,000 and $ 100,000 for the Housing Assistance Program and Lead Poisoning Prevention Program Children.
These grants were conditionally made by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.
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