Advance registration and fee required to bid on tax delinquent Westmoreland properties

Potential buyers at Westmoreland County’s next sale of tax-delinquent properties will have to register in advance and pay a required fee to be eligible to bid at auction.

County commissioners are expected on Thursday to approve a new $25 registration fee to cover administrative costs. New registration provisions, enacted through an amendment to the state’s law that allows tax-delinquent properties to be sold by the government, are prompting extra costs.

“I guarantee we’ll have to turn people away because they didn’t register,” said Linda Kuchar, the county’s acting tax office director.

The new registration requirement was included in legislation signed into law at the end of June by Gov. Tom Wolf. It dictates the process to sell properties that are at least two years delinquent in county, municipal and school real estate taxes. Bidders must register with the county at least 10 days prior to the Sept. 13 sale under the new law.

Registrations and fees also will be required to bid on properties at future judicial sales conducted periodically throughout the year after all tax liens have been stripped from properties, Kuchar said.

Private bidders must submit their name, address and other contact information to the county as well as affirm they are up to date in making tax payments and otherwise eligible to purchase real estate at the sale, under the amended law. It also requires real estate companies, which gobble up tax-delinquent properties at public sales, to submit additional information that includes listings of all its owners.

Counties are required to pass along the bidder information to municipalities and other taxing bodies five days prior to the sale.

Registration fees are permitted to be assessed by counties as part of the amended law. Tim Andrews, solicitor for the county’s tax office, said the amended law does not set a range for a registration fee but was designed to cover additional administrative costs associated with the new requirements.

“We don’t think this will have significant impact,” Andrews said.

In past years, county officials registered auction bidders the morning of the sale and sought additional information later in the process, according to Kuchar.

About 150 bidders attended last September’s annual tax sale that, because of the coronavirus pandemic, was conducted at Westmoreland County Community College, where nearly 500 properties were on the auction block. Despite the pandemic, 140 properties sold last year and netted the county a record $1.5 million.

Kuchar said about 2,200 tax-delinquent properties are eligible for the September sale that will be conducted at the courthouse. A final list of properties on the sale list will be published Aug. 4, she said.

“With the housing market as high as it is right now, this is going to get people out who want to buy property,” Kuchar said.

Kuchar said registration fees are being implemented in other counties and range between $10 to $100.

In Allegheny County, delinquent-tax sales are conducted by the sheriff’s department. A sheriff’s sale was conducted July 6 and another is set for Aug. 2.

A call for comment from the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office was not returned.