Tax Recovery

The Municipal Government Act of Alberta authorizes Parkland County to establish timelines and procedures for recovering unpaid property taxes. This includes the possession and sale of properties, distribution of surplus sale proceeds and final disposition of the land parcels.

Parkland County tries to recover property tax arrears through a fair, reasonable process for both property owners and the County.

Tax recovery procedure

1. Each year, Parkland County must, no later than March 31, 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.
   
2. A Tax Recovery Notification is registered on the Certificate of Title.
3. 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 Parkland County.
4. Anyone can pay the tax arrears owing against the property and Parkland County will discharge the Tax Recovery Notification.
5. Once the Registrar has endorsed the Tax Recovery Notification he/she must, no later than August 1, send a notice to the parcel owner, to any person who has an interest registered against the parcel, and to each owner of an encumbrance as shown on the Certificate of Title.
6. The notice must state that if the tax arrears are not paid by March 31 of the following year, then Parkland County will begin proceedings to offer the parcel for sale at a public auction, and Parkland County may become the owner of the parcel if it is not sold at the public auction.
7. Parkland County MUST offer for sale any lands with tax arrears that are shown on its tax arrears list at a public auction.
8. Discharge of the Tax Recovery Notification will not be sent to Land Titles until the arrears and penalties are paid in full.
9. Parkland 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. Council must also establish terms and conditions that apply to the sale.
10. Parkland County must advertise the public auction in the Alberta Gazette and one local newspaper. The 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

The tax recovery process provides persons 10 years from the date of public auction or the actual property sale date, to claim any surplus sale proceeds, if the property was sold at auction ,. The property's Certificate of Title shall be reviewed, prior to the County's possession, to determine if there are encumbrances registered against it. For the purposes of this policy, Right of Way and Easement registrations are not considered encumbrances against the Certificate of Title.

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