This house at 4358 Hobson Rd. in Kelowna could be headed to a tax sale at the end of September.
Image Credit: Google Street View
September 13, 2019 - 3:12 PM
KELOWNA - It will cost only about $2,000 for the owners of the most expensive home in the B.C. Interior to come off the City of Kelowna’s tax sale list.
The home at 4358 Hobson Rd. was the priciest property in the Interior when B.C. Assessment’s annual review of property values was released in January at $10.6 million.
It was listed as being 9,761 square feet on a 1.764-acre waterfront lot with four bedrooms and six bathrooms.
Today, Sept. 13, it showed up in a City of Kelowna ad posting properties that are up for sale for unpaid taxes. That sale is scheduled for Sept. 30.
It shows an “Upset Price” of $161,638, which means if someone wants a bargain they can hand over that amount to the city but there are a few catches.
First, the owner has until 9 a.m. on Sept. 30 to pay the “delinquent” portion of the tax bill – that is, taxes owing from 2017. In this case, that amounts to about $2,000. Once that’s paid, the home is withdrawn from the tax sale.
The owner will still owe about $160,000 for unpaid taxes in 2018 and 2019 but will have another year to pay the 2018 taxes or risk going back on the tax sale list.
Another catch is if the $2,000 in delinquent taxes isn’t paid, and it does go to the tax sale and if someone is willing to pay the city the full amount, the owner will still have a year to pay it down and keep the property.
There are 59 properties listed for the tax sale but that will likely drop by next Friday when the next tax sale notice is published by the city, Angie Schumacher, the city’s revenue supervisor told iNFOnews.ca.
“We do expect most properties will contact the city and we’ll be able to give them the amount of their delinquent taxes and they will pay that and come off the tax sale list,” she said. “Our goal is to have no properties on the tax sale list. We don’t want to sell people’s homes.”
It's rare that homes are sold for taxes. Last year one house was sold for taxes owed and Schumacher thinks about five homes the year before. In each case, the delinquent amounts were paid.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Rob Munro or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
News from © iNFOnews, 2019