MONTICELLO, NY — With affordable housing in short supply, keeping families in the homes they own is particularly important.

The Sullivan County Legislature took a step to support that cause on September 15.

The legislature rescheduled the county’s real property tax auction from September 21 and 22 to November 16 and 17. This rescheduling allows the legislature to create a window for owners of foreclosed properties to repurchase their properties before the county auctions them off, if the county had foreclosed on them for nonpayment of taxes.

Property owners can repurchase their foreclosed property until 5 p.m. on November 1. They must pay all delinquent taxes, a fee equal to five percent of the property’s full market value, 10 percent of the current property taxes due and any and all closing costs necessary for the transfer of the title. They must also provide proof of payment of current village and school taxes.

The legislature’s action was prompted by calls from constituents.

“I’ve received multiple different calls about people’s homes being on the auction block this year,” said legislator Joe Perrello. “Every story’s a different story… if it happened to any one of us, or family members or loved ones, you’d be fighting tooth and nail for them.”

Legislators didn’t seek to disparage the work done by the Sullivan County treasurer’s office, nor to deny that foreclosure is sometimes necessary. “But this is just a little different,” said legislative chair Rob Doherty, summing up the body’s feelings on the subject.

In particular, Doherty said that reports about the timing of foreclosure signs had impacted the legislature’s decision. Under normal conditions, individuals still had time to redeem their properties once a notice got pinned to their door. The notices in the most recent cycle had gone up after that deadline.

“The Treasurer’s Office and Real Property Advisory Board work diligently and scrupulously [to] follow the law amidst sometimes gut wrenching circumstances,” said Doherty in a statement announcing the decision. “We simply feel that it is in the best interests of taxpayers to provide additional opportunity to repurchase their properties.”

Extenuating circumstances

The foreclosure redemption deadline has been extended a half-dozen times in the past two years.

The COVID-19 pandemic gummed up the works of government and made it hard for people to submit the taxes they owed; the extensions gave them more time to get their taxes in order.

The earlier rounds of extensions had two main factors behind them: delays in distributing housing relief, and miscommunication about taxes owed.

New York State offered pandemic-related housing assistance through the Homeowners Assistance Fund (HAF). Earlier extensions gave the HAF more time to distribute funding to Sullivan County residents who were behind on their property taxes, for a total of around a quarter-million dollars in relief, according to Sullivan County treasurer Nancy Buck.

The records of property taxes owed also got mixed up, due to the pandemic. The towns only have access to the more recent rounds of taxes, according to Buck; older, delinquent taxes go to the county for collection. As of June 2022, around 50 homeowners had paid their 2020 taxes but not their 2019 taxes.

Earlier extensions had been enacted at the New York State level, or by the Sullivan County treasurer’s office. The opening of the repurchase period for foreclosed properties originated from the Sullivan County legislature. “Since the redemption period had passed, we had to take legislative action in order to postpone the auction,” said Doherty.

Payment details can be obtained from the Sullivan County treasurer’s office by calling 845/807-0200.