Tax sale nets $387,000 for Norfolk County

J.P. Antonacci

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A tax sale in November netted nearly $387,000 for Norfolk County after four property owners coughed up years of unpaid taxes and three high bidders walked away from their purchases.

Only one of the 11 properties initially put on the auction block in the fall actually sold at the Nov. 5 auction. But tax collector Rob Fleming explained the point of the exercise was not to sell the properties but to compel their owners to settle their property tax bills.

The owners of four properties did just that, with a Turkey Point cottage, Port Dover house, and two properties connected to the Dover Coast development in Port Dover — including a 154-acre golf course along Highway 6 — being pulled from the sale because the outstanding taxes were paid.

Three other properties received bids but the successful bidders walked away from their offers, forfeiting their deposits.

In those cases, the bids came in well above the minimum bid required to cover the tax arrears. All three properties have restrictions that prevent building permits from being issued.

The sole property to be sold was a 39-acre parcel of farmland on the border of Six Nations of the Grand River. The land was owned by the Haudenosaunee Development Institute, the development arm of the traditional government of Six Nations. HDI representatives have stated they will not willingly give up the property, which they consider unceded Haudenosaunee territory and thus exempt from municipal taxation.

The highest of eight bids for that property came in at $410,800. But Norfolk only keeps the taxes owed, which were $73,657, plus any fees associated with the transfer of ownership. The rest of the money is held by the courts in case of future legal action.

All told, the municipality collected $408,625 through the tax sale process, not far from the $466,254.41 owed in taxes on the original 11 properties.

“The tax sale process was successful in that it recovered a significant portion of property taxes outstanding,” collections supervisor Erika Robinson said in a report to council on Tuesday.

Three slivers of land on Windham Street in Simcoe received no bids, and council voted to have the municipality assume ownership to allow unimpeded access to stormwater infrastructure on the three sites.

“These parcels are not eligible for building permits due to their inclusion within existing stormwater and sewer easements,” Robinson explained.

“Vesting these parcels would allow the municipality to have control over infrastructure involved with the stormwater system, which would facilitate any maintenance.”

Buying the three parcels meant writing off $21,783 in unpaid property taxes, which cut into the county’s take from the tax sale.

- J.P. Antonacci is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.