This house is assessed at $1.6 million but could be sold to a new owner for only $67,000.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Google maps
October 07, 2019 - 5:31 PM
KELOWNA - Annual tax sales in Kelowna and West Kelowna included almost a dozen properties worth $7.3 million that were auctioned off because of unpaid taxes.
Not that any of them are likely to go to the bidders since the current owners have a year to pay off the taxes owed in order to keep their homes.
Leading the way was a home at 1046 Fuller Ave. in Kelowna that B.C. Assessments valued at $1.56 million. Taxes owed were $26,287 but the prospective new owner bid $67,000 in the hopes of securing a deal.
Taxes have to go unpaid for three years before the properties go to auction. The list for this year started at 59 in Kelowna but dwindled to six by the Sept. 30 deadline. Last year, only one property went to the tax sale and that has since been redeemed by the owner, Angie Schumacher, the city’s Revenue Supervisor told iNFOnews.ca in an email today.
She also noted that one of the six properties sold in Kelowna last week has already been redeemed by the owner.
The six Kelowna properties had a total value of $4.2 million while the taxes owed were only $70,165. In all, $612,000 was paid in deposits to the city in the hopes of getting a good deal on the homes.
Ironically, the $67,000 bid for the Fuller Avenue home was the lowest paid in Kelowna.
A bid of $110,000 was made for a $922,000 home at 2621 Longhill Rd. that owed $14,070 in taxes.
The Kelowna property with the lowest value ($283,300) drew a bid of $100,000.
In West Kelowna, five properties were sold for a total of $510,000 but were valued at $3.1 million.
The most expensive West Kelowna home was one worth $942,000 at 1550 Pinot Gris Dr. that drew a bid of $185,000. Another worth $880,000 at 3512 Corine Rd. went for $160,000.
The five West Kelowna sales were down from previous years. There were nine sold last year and 18 in 2017.
“We have never had a tax sale go to the new owner, except for one that the City inherited because no one bid on it during the tax sale and taxes were never paid,” Kirsten Jones, West Kelowna’s strategic communications manager, said in an email.
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