8.24.060 Disposition and sale of foreclosed property.
A. The Assembly shall determine by ordinance whether foreclosed property deeded to the municipality shall be retained for a public purpose. If property is retained by the Borough for a public purpose then the following shall apply:
1. The Borough shall provide the former record owner of the property written notice of the Assembly’s decision to retain the property, the manner by which the value of the property has been determined, the existence of any excess amount and the manner in which a claim for the excess of the proceeds may be submitted. Notice is sufficient under this section if mailed to the former record owner at the last address of record of the former record owner. If the former record owner within six months of the date of the written notice files a proper claim for the excess value, if any, the Borough shall remit the excess to the former record owner; otherwise the claim for the excess value is forever barred.
2. Value of the Property. The value of the retained property shall be determined by taking the assessed value of the property in the year it is being retained and multiplying it by the class percentage determined by totaling the high bids of the properties sold in the past three foreclosure sale years in each class listed below and dividing that total by the total assessed value of those same properties:
a. Class A. Foreclosed properties with improvements of $10,000 or more at time of the foreclosure sale.
b. Class B. Foreclosed properties with improvements of less than $10,000 or no improvements at time of the foreclosure sale.
3. Liens. Any excess value shall first be applied in priority order to pay federal tax liens and state tax liens.
4. The property shall be deemed to have excess value payable to a former record owner only if the value of the property as determined in this section exceeds the total of the unpaid and delinquent taxes, penalties, interest, costs, federal tax liens, and state tax liens.
B. The Borough may sell tax-foreclosed property once held for a public purpose only if the Assembly determines by ordinance that a public need for the property does not exist.
C. The ordinances required by this section shall contain the legal description of the property, the address or a general description of the property sufficient to provide the public with notice of its location, and the name of the last record owner of the property as the name appears on the assessment rolls.
D. The Clerk’s designee shall send a copy of the published notice of hearing of these ordinances by certified mail to the former record owner of property that is a subject of the ordinance. The notice shall be mailed within five days after its first publication and shall be sufficient if mailed to the last record owner of the property as the name appears on the assessment rolls of the Borough. However, this subsection does not apply to property that has been held by the Borough for a period of more than 10 years after the close of the redemption period.
E. The Assembly shall cause an open- or sealed-bid public auction to be held at least once every two years to sell tax-foreclosed property conveyed to the Borough and not required for a public purpose. The Clerk shall cause notice of the auction to be published twice in the 60 days immediately preceding the auction. The notice shall contain the date, time and place of the auction, the properties to be sold, the minimum acceptable bids, the names and rights of the former record owners and other information as the Assembly may direct. (Ord. 2013-57 § 2, 2013; Ord. 86-036 § 6, 1986. 2004 Code § 3.36.060.)