How do tax sales work in BC, and can I buy a property at one?

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A municipality auctions property with taxes two years unpaid on the last Monday in September; the owner can still redeem it for a year, so the buyer gets title only if they don't. When property taxes go unpaid long enough, a BC municipality must offer the property at its annual tax sale. A bidder can buy at little more than the taxes owed, but what they buy is a right that becomes a title only if no one redeems it within a year. Rural land outside a municipality isn't auctioned at all: it forfeits to the Province. Look up the address or PID on PlaceDossier to see the record for that lot. When a property goes to sale: Taxes unpaid on December 31 of the year they're imposed are in arrear, and those still unpaid on December 31 of the next year are delinquent (Community Charter ss. 245 (1), 246 (1)). At 10 a.m. on the last Monday in September, the collector must offer each parcel with delinquent taxes at a public auction at the council chambers (Local Government Act s. 645 (1)). The sale is advertised 3 to 10 days before, with each property's legal description and street address (s. 647), and the owner is told in writing at least 30 days before (s. 647.1). The upset price: The lowest bid accepted is the upset price: the delinquent taxes, taxes in arrear and interest, this year's taxes and penalties, 5% of those, and the Land Title Act fees (s. 649). The highest bidder above it buys; with no bid at it, the municipality is declared the purchaser (s. 650), and may sell the property within 9 months for the upset price and interest (s. 655). A buyer must pay at once, and signs a statement letting the collector apply for their title (ss. 650 (4), 651). The redemption year: The buyer gets a certificate of sale, not a title (s. 652), and the sale is noted at the Land Title Office (s. 656). For one year from the day the sale began, the owner, a charge holder or someone on their behalf can redeem by paying the upset price, the buyer's costs of keeping up the property and taxes the buyer paid, with interest (s. 660 (2), (3)); the buyer then gets back everything they paid, with interest at the Province's rate (s. 660 (5)). Owners, and lenders holding a mortgage, often redeem (our reading). During that year: The owner keeps possession, and the property stays assessed and taxed in their name (ss. 658 (1), 665 (1) (b)). The buyer may enter only to keep it in proper condition and prevent waste, and may pay the year's taxes, which are added to the redemption (ss. 658 (3), 665 (1) (b)). So a tax sale buyer can't move in, rent it out or inspect it as of right in that year (our reading). If no one redeems: At the end of the redemption period the collector applies to register the buyer as owner (s. 663 (1), (2)). That registration clears the previous owners' interests and the mortgages, liens and judgments against the land (s. 663 (5); Land Title Act s. 276 (1)), but not registered easements, covenants, building schemes, party wall agreements or statutory rights of way, nor a lien of the Crown or an improvement district (s. 276 (1) (c) to (g)). Money bid above the upset price goes to the former owner (s. 659). Setting a sale aside: During the redemption year, a former owner or charge holder can ask the Supreme Court to set the sale aside on limited grounds: the property wasn't taxable, the taxes were paid, the notices weren't given, the taxes were imposed irregularly or the sale wasn't fair and open (s. 666), and the council may cancel a sale for a manifest error, refunding the buyer with interest (s. 668). After the redemption period, no action may be brought to recover the property or set the sale aside (s. 669 (1)). Rural land: forfeiture, not a sale: Outside a municipality, the Province collects the taxes, and land with taxes unpaid until the end of November of the second year after they were due forfeits to the Province on December 1, once the Surveyor of Taxes has given notice, clear of charges but those the Land Title Act keeps (Taxation (Rural Area) Act s. 39 (2), (3)). The owner can buy it back within a year by paying what's owed and the Province's costs, and in the next two years only by the Surveyor of Taxes' order (s. 40). Forfeited land is administered under the Land Act (s. 39 (5)), so a rural lot isn't bought at a tax auction (our reading). Before you bid: The tax sale list gives a legal description and an address, not the property's condition, and a bidder usually can't go inside first (our reading). Search the title for the charges a tax sale keeps, and look up the lot: zoning, floodplain, access and contamination stay with it. The City of Vancouver holds its tax sale under the Vancouver Charter, which we haven't read. What it means for a buyer: A tax sale is less a bargain than a loan at the Province's interest rate that turns into a title only when no one with an interest in the property pays (our reading). A report gives the lot's zoning, hazards, access and what's on its title map, which a tax sale buyer can't otherwise check.

How do tax sales work in BC, and can I buy a property at one?

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