Tax Sale

What is a tax sale?

Tax sale is a public auction of properties within a municipality which have three years of outstanding property taxes. To avoid tax sale, you must pay your delinquent taxes. Delinquent taxes are taxes outstanding from three years prior. If you don’t pay your delinquent taxes, we put your property up for tax sale.

Redeeming a tax sale

You can get your property back after it’s been sold in a tax sale. You have one year from the date of tax sale to do so. You’ll need to pay the upset price, all cost for maintenance of the property, taxes and interest.

The upset price is:

  • Sum of all the property taxes outstanding as at the date of the tax sale.
  • Plus all applicable penalties and interest.
  • Plus an additional 5% of all taxes, penalties and interest.
  • Plus all applicable Land Title Act fees.

Tax sale date

Each year on the last Monday of September at 10 a.m.

Paying Your Taxes

If you have delinquent taxes and want to find out your current balance or have any questions, please contact us. Remember you only need to pay the delinquent taxes to avoid tax sale. These are the taxes outstanding from three years prior. If you don’t pay them, we sell your property at tax sale.

There are many ways to pay your taxes. To avoid tax sale, contact us and we can provide you with the important dates.

Auction Process

We must publish notice of the tax sale and each tax sale property’s description and street address in the newspaper. To avoid having your property in the paper, contact us and we can provide you with the important dates.

The last publication of the tax sale must be at least three days and not more than 10 days before the date of the tax sale.

The lowest amount for which a property may be sold at tax sale is the upset price:

  • Sum of all the property taxes outstanding as at the date of the tax sale.
  • Plus all applicable penalties and interest.
  • Plus an additional 5% of all taxes, penalties and interest.
  • Plus all applicable Land Title Act fees.

For one year following the auction, the owner retains the right to possession of the tax sale property.