1,000 properties in county back-tax sale

A separate free-and-clear sale, for which liens are cleared, to include about 30 properties

More than 1,000 properties are listed in Thursday’s Luzerne County back-tax sale, though the list will likely shrink as some owners scramble to get their properties removed.

Properties are supposed to be auctioned if taxes have gone unpaid for two years.

To get out of the sale, property owners must pay taxes owed through 2009, file for bankruptcy or convince a judge to grant more time.

The Nov. 10 auction, known as an upset sale, is for properties that have not yet been listed at a delinquent sale.

Properties are less likely to sell at upset sales because liens attached to properties are not forgiven, as opposed to free-and-clear sales, in which liens are cleared and bids typically start at several hundred dollars.

John Rodgers, head of the county’s tax claim operator, Northeast Revenue Service LLC, expects about 10 percent of the properties will sell at upset.

The county also will auction about 30 properties at a separate free-and-clear sale Thursday. These properties were pulled from an August sale pending more research.

The current list of 1,021 upset sale properties includes the former Academy Super Market on Academy Street in Wilkes-Barre, with bids starting at $20,808.

The Maryland-based BSE Properties LLC bought the property for $14,000 at a September 2006 back-tax sale but has not rehabilitated the property as promised, Wilkes-Barre officials have said.

Two large Wilkes-Barre apartment buildings owned by Patricia Kolesar are scheduled for auction: the former Dana Street School and 89 Carey Ave., records show. Bids start at $64,044 and $38,997.

At least a dozen commercial and industrial properties are on the list, including an industrial print shop on Foote Avenue in Duryea owned by T P Corp. The property has an assessed value of $1.1 million, and bids start at $231,637.

A dozen properties belonging to the late Joseph Nowakowski won’t be listed because a $325,000 payment of back taxes was made through bankruptcy court, Rodgers said. A series of bankruptcy proceedings kept the Nowakowski properties out of tax sales for years, resulting in unpaid taxes dating back to 1996. Rodgers said payment was made after his company sought court approval to auction the properties.

The sale will begin at 10 a.m. in the county courthouse. Updated lists of properties in the auction may be viewed at Northeast Revenue’s website, www.luzernecountytaxclaim.com (click on the judicial and upset sale headings at the left of the main page).

Bidders must register by 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. Information on bidding is available by calling the county tax claim office at 825-1512 or visiting the office’s website.

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