First property auction sale this century
By Collin Gallant on March 31, 2018.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant For the first time in 20 years a property offered at tax auction in Medicine Hat has sold. Administrators say beyond the single winning bid for a mobile home — the first bid recorded this century — Thursday’s mandated auction did attract some interest from other parties on other properties. But, as is typical, most of the 18 properties first listed for sale last month were removed from the block as owners or mortgage holders made arrangements to pay back-taxes prior to the 9 a.m. sale at city hall. Only three properties went to the auction stage, including two parking stalls at a condominium complex that have separate titles. A long-vacant mobile home that sits at 104 Anson Ave. was purchased with a reserve bid value of $10,000 on condition payment is made by a deadline next week. While the exercise is required by provincial regulations when properties reach four years in arrears, it had been “at least 20 years” since a sale occurred, said Denise Schmaltz, the city’s superintendent of collections. Schmaltz also said tax auctions aren’t the haven for bargain hunters the general public might think. “It’s done through the Municipal Government Act, it spans four years and we’ll wait until the last legislated day,” she said. “It gives the owner more time to rectify things.” Properties are sold as is, where is and often without potential bidders getting a view of conditions inside. The city is also required to set reserve bids at fair market value, so owners receive equity once tax arrears are paid. That didn’t deter local contractor Dan Pede from successfully placing a bid on the mobile home. “I do renovations and we’ve been doing it a long time,” he said, noting he had only been to one auction before, “years and years ago.” “I think we’ll be OK on it. What do you get for $10,000 anymore?” He plans to renovate the property at the site through his company Fine Line Contracting, and either offer it as a rental or for sale, depending on his costs. The sale will only become official next week when full payment is due. Last month, administrators put a list of 18 properties that could move to sale to recover tax amounts, a higher number than in previous years, but 15 were removed before Thursday. That includes an apparent arrangement to cover taxes owed on the former lumberyard at 920 Bridge St. That vacant, unheated building beside the Allowance Avenue shows gaping holes in its roof, and some members of the community have called it an eyesore. It is the former location of Revelstoke lumber, though the current ownership is not clear. City building inspectors have told the News they are monitoring the building. Two others that garnered some interest from the public but had no official bids were parking stalls. They belonged to a now-defunct company that didn’t transfer title to the condo board during its wind-down. The three were the first to go to sale in at least four years. Only one property went to auction in 2014, at the owner’s request, while 12 other property owners made payment arrangements. A year earlier, no bids were received on a former salvage yard on South Railway Street. City administrators eventually chose to write off the debt rather than assume environmental liabilities by seizing ownership of the property. 26
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