The City of Nanaimo swept up the full inventory of properties in this year’s tax sale.
The city held its annual tax sale this week, auctioning off 22 properties with overdue taxes.
About 20 people were at the sale Monday, where the city picked up all but one property. It later acquired the full inventory after an outside party failed to pay the winning bid.
The city’s total spend was more than $280,000.
According to Diane Hiscock, the city’s manager of revenue services, the city provides landowners with more options to redeem their properties when it buys them at the annual tax sale.
Under the Local Government Act, the city is required to sell all properties whose taxes have not been paid for three years. Landowners now have 12 months to pay the City of Nanaimo the amount owing to take back their property or it will roll over to the municipality.
With the city as property-holder and if the property has seen improvements, owners also have the option of paying half the outstanding balance to extend the redemption deadline. The city hasn’t kept ownership of any properties since it began actively bidding at the tax sale.
