Property being sold for back taxes
Municipality steps in to collect unpaid property taxes
Some things you can ignore for a short while. Some things you can ignore forever. But some things you simply cannot ignore.
This story is about one of those last things. It’s a lesson that some people learn early in life and others later. The lesson is you have to pay your property taxes. You can’t ignore that bill.
If you don’t pay, the municipality has the right to seize your property and sell it to get the taxes it is owed.
Case in point is 63 Front Street North in Campbellford. Currently home of The Trent Bar & Cafe.
The municipality is owed $57,000.23 in back taxes and wants its – our – money so it is holding a sale. I first spotted the ad in The Community Press, but it’s also on the municipality’s website.
The ad says that the latest assessed value of the property was $241,000.
The sale is by public tender with bids accepted until 3 p.m. April 9. Shortly after that time all bids will be opened in public at the council chambers in the Emergency Services Base.
“The successful purchaser will be required to pay the amount tendered plus accumulated taxes and any taxes that may be applicable, such as a land transfer tax and HST,” the municipal ad says.
“The municipality has no obligation to provide vacant possession to the successful purchaser,” it warns.
If you want to place a bid, you need to use a tender package that can be purchased for $15 plus HST at the Municipal Office, 66 Front St. S.. Or you can download one frmo the Ontario Tax Sales website for $25 plus HST.
Your bid “must be accompanied by a deposit of at least 20 per cent of the tender amount, which deposit shall be made by way of a certified cheque/bank draft/ money order payable to the municipality.”
And don’t forget, if you win you’ll be on the hook for future property taxes.
You can read all Trent Hills News stories on my website here.