Back-tax auction for Powell office set
Listed under company name Big Kahuna Realty LLC, law office part of March 23 sale.
By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
Robert Powell’s Butler Township law office is among 607 Luzerne County properties listed for auction at a March 23 back-tax sale.
The Powell Law Group building requires a starting bid of $84,448 at the March 23 back-tax sale, according to the public posting.
Clark Van Orden/The Times Leader
Sale listing
The list of properties slated for sale on March 23 and other information about the bidding process may be found on Northeast Revenue’s website, www.luzernecountytaxclaim.com.
Roughly 300 of these properties, including the law office, are up for sale because the owners failed to comply with payment plans or court agreements that kept their properties out of prior tax sales, said John Rodgers, of Northeast Revenue Service LLC, which has been operating the county tax claim office since May.
In the past, payment plan defaulters would be off the hook until an annual first-stage “upset sale” was held in September, but Northeast Revenue opted to hold a special upset sale in March, Rodgers said.
“Some would make one payment and not pay again, and they’d buy themselves a whole year,” Rodgers said. “We didn’t want to wait until September. We’re really trying to hold people’s feet to the fire.”
Upset sales are for properties that have not yet been listed at a back-tax sale. Buyers must pay off all back taxes and government liens and might be responsible for other non-government liens or debts tied to the property.
Powell’s building, listed under the company name Big Kahuna Realty LLC, requires a starting bid of $84,448, according to the public posting.
The Fox Run Road building on 5 acres is assessed at $1.17 million.
Rodgers said the property was listed because a past-negotiated payment plan allowed Big Kahuna to repay lower amounts with a larger balloon payment at the end of the agreement, and the balloon payment was not made. This agreement was made when the county was still running the tax claim office.
Northeast Revenue has refused to authorize any new special payment plans and has been complying with the repayment structure established by law – 25 percent down with the remainder paid off within a year, Rodgers said.
Properties are supposed to be auctioned if taxes have gone unpaid for two years unless the property meets one of three conditions: a judge agreed to remove it from a sale, it is tied up in an active bankruptcy proceeding, or the owner is sticking to a repayment agreement.
To get out of the sale, Big Kahuna would have to pay taxes owed up to 2009, Rodgers said. That portion of the bill totals $23,756 for taxes owed from 2007 and 2008, according to Northeast’s online database.
A new payment plan is not an option because those who default aren’t eligible to participate in another payment plan for three years – another requirement that was not always enforced in the past, Rodgers said.
Powell, who pleaded guilty as part of the federal corruption probe in July 2009 to failing to report a crime, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Though Powell had a prior payment agreement, more than 100 properties in the March 23 upset sale were for defaulted payment agreements initiated last September, said Northeast Revenue representative Sean Shamany.
“They paid the 25 percent down but never paid another dime,” Shamany said. “Now people know they’re not going to get away with what they did in the past. We’re staying on top of it.”
The remaining 300 properties are in a judicial or “free-and-clear” sale for properties that did not sell at previous back-tax auctions. Buyers are required to pay only the expenses to sell the building, such as legal and advertising fees. These properties are free of any taxes, liens and mortgages.
Rodgers said the 300 properties were pulled from a previous judicial sale because Northeast Revenue wanted to ensure it exhausted all efforts to notify property owners. The company has implemented a more expansive notification checklist so buyers don’t run into legal issues obtaining clean property titles, he said.
Commissioners have praised Northeast Revenue’s performance and plan to vote Wednesday to extend the company’s contract for two more years. The company will be opening a satellite office in Hazleton for southern county residents, Rodgers said.
The company recently sent reminder notices to more than 16,000 property owners who have not paid their 2010 taxes, Shamany said. Additional notices will be sent monthly to property owners who have not paid — something that wasn’t done in the past, he said.
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