Tax Recovery Procedure
Tools and timelines for overdue tax recovery
The County uses property tax revenues to provide services, maintain infrastructure, and meet financial obligations.
The Government of Alberta recognizes the reliance all municipalities have on property tax revenue. To ensure that everyone who is required to pay municipal taxes does so, the Province has passed legislation that ensures municipalities can collect the taxes that are due.
The Ten Steps of the County's Tax Recovery Procedure
The County undertakes standard procedural steps to satisfy legislative requirements related to the various tax recovery processes allowed under the Municipal Government Act.
- Each year (no later than March 31), the County must prepare a list of all parcels of land that are more than one year in arrears, and forward the list to the registrar at the Land Titles Office. Section 326 (c) of the Municipal Government Act defines tax arrears as taxes that remain unpaid after December 31 of the year in which they are imposed.
- A tax recovery notification is then registered on the certificate of title.
- The person who is liable to pay the taxes must not remove any improvements for which taxes can be levied and for which that person is responsible, without the approval of the County.
- Anyone can pay the tax arrears owing against the property. Doing so would enable the County to discharge the tax recovery notification on the property.
- Once the registrar has endorsed the tax recovery notification, the registrar must send a notice to: the parcel owner; any person who has an interest registered against the parcel; and each owner of an encumbrance as shown on the certificate of title. These notices must be sent no later than August 1.
- The registrar's notice must state that if the tax arrears are not paid by March 31 of the following year, the County will begin proceedings to offer the parcel for sale at public auction, and the may become the owner of the parcel if it is not sold at public auction.
- By law, the County must offer for sale any lands with tax arrears that are shown on its tax arrears list at a public auction.
- Discharge of the tax recovery notification will not be sent to Land Titles until the arrears and penalties are paid in full, or a binding tax agreement has been entered into that addresses all arrears and penalties.
- The County must establish a reserve selling price before it can auction a property. The reserve bid is set as close as reasonably possible to the market value of the parcel. The Council must also establish terms and conditions that apply to the sale.
- The County must advertise the public auction in the Alberta Gazette, plus one local newspaper. This advertisement must specify the date, time and location of the auction and a description of each parcel for sale. The advertisement must also include any terms and conditions of sale.
Distribution of Surplus Sale Proceeds
Prior to the County's possession of a delinquent property, its certificate of title is reviewed to determine if there are any encumbrances registered against it. For the purposes of the tax recovery policy, right-of-way and easement registrations are not considered encumbrances against the certificate of title.
The County uses the proceeds from an auctioned property's sale to satisfy the tax arrears and administrative costs associated to the property.
If you are the owner of a property in arrears that was sold at auction, you have ten years from the date of public auction (or the actual property sale date) to claim any surplus sale proceeds.
Other Assessment & Taxation Resources
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