BARRHEAD - County of Barrhead residents who are not up to date in paying their 2022 property taxes will have until early December to get their accounts current.
If they don't, they risk losing their property, as it will be offered up for sale at a public auction on the same date.
On June 3, County of Barrhead councillors voted 5-0 to accept a recommendation by administration to set the date for the public tax arrears auction for Dec. 3. As part of the same motion, they also selected county manager Debbie Oyarzun, or her designate to act as auctioneer.
Councillors Jared Stoik and Walter Preugschas were absent.
Presently, 10 properties are slated for the public auction.
Oyarzun noted Alberta's Municipal Government Act (MGA) governs the process and is highly regulated.
She added that under the MGA, the municipality must annually draft, by no later than March 31, a tax arrears list showing all properties for which tax rolls are in arrears by more than one year.
The municipality then sends the list to the Alberta Land Titles registrar, which then endorses a tax recovery notification title of the property that is in arrears.
The registrar then sends a notice no later than Aug. 1 back to the municipality, stating that if the ratepayer doesn't bring the tax roll up to date by March 31, 2025, they can then put the property up for public auction. The public auction can be held anytime from April 1, 2025 to March 2026.
"It is important to note that the properties that go to public auction are not only in arrears for 2025 but back to 2022," Oyarzun said.
She added that the Alberta Land Titles office and the municipality send out multiple notices to the property owner several times throughout the process. She also noted that the MGA strictly outlines specific advertising requirements that the county must follow, notifying the public about the auction.
In previous meetings, she has also stated that the municipality must sell the property at a price as close to market value as possible.
"Historically, we've held the auction in December because if we hold it in December, the landowner would have to pay the taxes owed for 2022, 2023, and 2024 to get the property off the tax sale," Oyarzun said.
However, she said that if they hold it off any later, into the New Year, the same landowner would also have to pay the 2025 taxes to get the account up to date.
Oyarzun said the property owners have the right, up to and including the auction date, to bring their account current or enter into a tax payment agreement.
County tax clerk Moira O'Neill said the administration does everything it can to bring the landowner up to date and, often, is successful in reducing the number of properties going to public auction to the point where it is no longer necessary.
Last year, three properties out of an initial 10 were put up for public auction.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
