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Tax arrears property numbers “frighteningly higher”
By Chris Conway
The list of properties in tax arrears is “frighteningly higher” than last year says District of Invermere Director of Finance Karen Cote.
Cote made the comment at the April 28 council meeting while explaining the district’s first quarter financial statements.
“The list of tax sale properties is quite large, which I’m quite concerned about,” Cote informed council. “I’m already starting collection early this year. I’m going to really work hard to get that number down to zero.”
Coun. Paul Denchuk noted that last year the district also had a large number of tax sales but that Cote managed to get it down to zero through collections process. “How does this year compare?” he asked.
“It’s frighteningly higher,” Cote responded. “Last I checked there are over 30 properties and they are different ones as well.”
“Times are a little tough for people right now,” she added grimly.
“Nobody wants to sell someone’s property; how awful,” said Cote. “I just try to work with people and let them know how the legislation works. We’re mandated to do this, it’s in the Community Charter and that’s the way it goes.”
“If they happen to be from a different province they’re quite shocked at the process, because the process in Alberta is much different than what we have here,” observed Cote. “So it’s also a little bit of a learning curve for some people.”
She told council that it’s getting a lot harder to track people down. She explained that some people have no phone number and that mail is returned because they have moved.
“We use Google and some creative ways to track people down,” she reported. “Sometimes notifying the lender is enough to get people to come in and pay.”
Mayor Gerry Taft had a warning for people who get really excited about what they perceive as an opportunity to scoop a property really cheaply. He stated they may have very little understanding of how it really works.
“You buy it but you don’t own it,” explained Taft. “There’s a year to redeem and a 99.9% chance that the lender or the property owner is going to redeem before the year is over. Your chances of getting a property are low – it’s only happened once that I know of.”
Cote noted that some people use a tax sale as an investment to bid on the property and then park their money with the municipality. She told council that the provincial government sets the interest rate, which is currently 5.5% and has recently been as high as six per cent.
“Whoever redeems is required to pay the interest, not the municipality,” said Cote.
Coun. Justin Atterbury noted that it’s interest on what was bid not what was owed, so they could just bid $1 million and that’s what the interest would be paid on.
“It’s happened,” agreed the Mayor.
Coun. Al Miller thanked Cote for a job well done on the financial statements. “It’s clean, it’s clear and the collection job is not a fun job but you obviously have that down pat as well,” he said. “Kudos,” he added.
Council voted unanimously that the financial statements for the period ending March 31, 2015 be received as presented.
