WILKES-BARRE – More than 500 properties in Luzerne County are listed in sales set for this Wednesday because of unpaid taxes from 2008 or prior years, according to Northeast Revenue Service, the company that runs the county tax claim office.
The properties up for sale were pulled from sales last year because of court orders or procedural disputes, said Sean Shamany, office manager for Northeast Revenue. More court hearings on properties listed for sale are scheduled for next week, Shamany said.
Two different types of sales will be conducted Wednesday – an upset sale and a “free-and-clear” sale. In the upset sale, bidding starts with the amount owed in taxes, fees and liens, and a buyer is responsible for all debt tied to a property. The “free-and-clear” sale involves properties that were not sold at a prior upset sale, and bidding starts with just legal and administrative costs.
A property owner can get a property removed from the delinquent-tax sales by paying the back taxes owed. A property owner can also pay 25 percent of the delinquent total and agree to pay off the balance in a year, provided the owner has not defaulted on a prior payment agreement.
One of the properties listed in the special upset sale is the Powell Law Group property in Butler Township. Big Kahuna Realty Inc., a company co-owned by attorneys Robert J. Powell and Jill A. Moran, owns the law office property.
The starting price at the sale is $84,468. The 5-acre Big Kahuna property on Fox Run Road has an assessed value of almost $1.2 million.
Powell and Moran testified last month in the corruption trial of former Luzerne County Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., who was found guilty of racketeering. Prosecutors alleged Powell paid $770,000 to Ciavarella and former Judge Michael T. Conahan for placing juveniles in two for-profit detention centers Powell co-owned.
Powell forfeited his law license after pleading guilty to a corruption charge in July 2009. Moran struck a deal with prosecutors in 2009 to cooperate and resign as county prothonotary, an elected official who manages civil court records, in lieu of charges.
Another property listed in the upset sale is the Old River Road Bakery, a property in Wilkes-Barre and owned by the city. The starting price at the sale is $476,009.
A pending sale of that property resulted in a civil lawsuit. A court order removed the property from the annual upset sale last September. Because of an inaccuracy involving the property’s deed, Northeast Revenue had to start the delinquent-notice process again.
mbuffer@citizensvoice.com