Down the Hatch
Another property owned by ‘Survivor’ winner Richard Hatch sold at tax sale
Another one of a former “Survivor” winner’s Cape Breton properties has gone down the hatch.
Dale Young of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality tax department confirmed there was a successful bidder on a property owned by Richard Hatch up for tax sale Thursday.
“Yes it was sold,” she said, noting that she could not confirm the amount it sold for because the paperwork was not yet finalized.
The property was a small piece of land on MacDonald Crescent in Sydney Mines with $3,644.17 owing in taxes.
It was one of 17 pieces of property, including some in Donkin, Sydney, Glace Bay and New Waterford, that Hatch purchased at a CBRM tax sale
in 2002.
Young said they can’t reveal how many of those properties are still owned by Hatch,
a native of Newport, Rhode Island, due to the privacy act.
She said 100-150 of CBRM properties that are two years in arrears are placed on tax sale at a time.
Hatch was the $1-million winner of the first reality “Survivor” show in 2000 and gained notoriety from his outspoken manner and spending the majority of the television show walking around naked.
Hatch’s Cape Breton properties have slowly been surfacing in tax sale, including land on York Street in Sydney in January 2013 with $2,722.45 in taxes owing. It was listed as “an immediate deed,” which meant he owed more than six years of taxes at the time and the successful bidder would have immediate ownership.
The Cape Breton post visited MacDonald Crescent in Sydney Mines on Friday and found “Survivor” fans.
“My whole family are fans and we’ve been watching it together as long as I can remember,” said Kyla Banks, 25, whose parents live next door to Hatch’s former piece of property.
“I live on Main Street and go over to their house every Wednesday to watch it with them. We don’t ever miss it.”
Banks said they had lived on MacDonald Crescent for 18 years and nothing was ever done with that piece of land.
“There was someone who came around years ago asking about it interested in putting a duplex on it.”
She said her parents later became interested in the property and her father researched and at that time discovered it was owned by Hatch.
“Yes, that made for interesting conversation,” she added, laughing.
She said her father attended the tax sale and bid on the property. She said they didn’t think it would be of interest to anyone else.
“My dad and another man were both bidding on it,” she said.
“My parents did everything they could to get it but the other person kept bidding. It went high, over $6,000.”
She said they were hoping to build a little house for her grandmother on the land so she’d be closer to them.
Carl MacKeigan and his wife Rose, who live across the street from the vacant property on MacDonald Crescent, said they didn’t know at first it was owned by Richard Hatch.
“My young fellow looked into it,” Carl said.
“We know he had bought land in Sydney Mines but weren’t sure where it was at first. ”
He said recently they noticed the property up for tax sale.
Carl said they do watch “Survivor” sometimes.
“I watch it only when there aren’t any sports on.”
He and Rose did see the first season with Hatch.
“I thought he was a little crazy walking around the show naked all the time in front of all the women there and on television,” he said.
However, he admits Hatch was entertaining.
“You’d get a good laugh.”
On Jan. 25, 2006, Hatch, who also appeared on NBC’s “The Celebrity Apprentice,” was found guilty of evading taxes on his $1-million “Survivor” winnings and was sentenced to 51 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
Hatch was back in federal court on Dec. 15, 2010, for violating terms of release by failing to file federal income tax returns, and on March 11, 2011, was sentenced to nine months of incarceration to be followed by a supervised release for 26 months.