Township ordered to pay landowner $350K
Municipality had sold property for tax arrears
The Township of Spallumcheen, near Armstrong, has learned the hard way how not to deal with delinquent property taxes.
According to a recent Supreme Court of B.C. ruling, in September 2017 the township sold a man's property at its annual municipal tax sale for $11,300 without telling him. At the time, the property was assessed at $159,000 and the amount of unpaid taxes was $6,700.
The township admitted it made a mistake in not notifying Anthony Brent Morgan, or the person who had a mortgage registered over the property, until after the deal had been sealed, allowing a buyer to get the nine-acre parcel of land in the beautiful Spallumcheen Valley for dirt cheap.
The court case was to determine how much Morgan should receive from the township in compensation.
Court heard that Morgan bought the land in 2011 for $160,000 and began improvements including building a driveway, connecting power, water and gas, and building a cover for two metal storage containers on the property.
In 2012, he moved a trailer onto the property and lived there with his family until a bylaw officer forced him off the land because he lacked permits. Morgan moved to Vernon, where he lives with his family in a rental home. He began to struggle financially and was unable to pay taxes on the property, court heard, and fell into arrears.
“The (township) failed to notify either the plaintiff or the mortgagee of the tax sale in accordance with the notice requirements of the (Local Government Act), and neither the plaintiff nor the mortgagee were aware that the property was going to be sold or was sold at the tax sale until after the redemption period had lapsed,” Justice Gordon Weatherill wrote in his ruling.
In court, the township claimed it should compensate Morgan based on the assessed value of the property in 2018 ($170,000).
Morgan believed he should receive a payment of $360,000 based on the assessed value at trial in January — a difference of $190,000.
The court sided with the plaintiff, ordering the township to pay Morgan $360,000, less $7,693 in accumulated taxes owing.