78 Pa. Commw. 49 | Pa. Commw. Ct. | 1983
Opinion by
Before this Court is an appeal by the Dauphin County Tax Claim Bureau (Bureau) from a decision and order of the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County setting aside as invalid a tax sale of property owned by Frank M. Doric and Louise A. Doric. We affirm.
The facts in this case are undisputed. The Dorics, as owners of property located at 21 South Third Street in Harrisburg, failed to pay property taxes for the year 1978. This led the Bureau to issue the appropriate notices of delinquency and a tax sale of the subject property was subsequently .scheduled for September 8, 1980. Notice of this tax sale was issued pus
This Court’s scope of review of tax cases such as that now before us is limited to determining whether the common pleas court abused its discretion, rendered a decision with a lack of supporting evidence or clearly erred as a matter of law. Sabarese v. Tax Claim Bureau of Monroe County, 69 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 442, 451 A.2d 793 (1982).
It is well settled that the notice provisions of the Law. are to be strictly construed so as to ensure against deprivation of property without due process of law. Povlow Appeal, 48 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 435, 410 A.2d 376 (1980). Among those provisions is the requirement of Section 602 that the party whose property is to be sold be informed of “the time of such sale.’'’ In the case sub judice, the Bureau, by failing to
Order
Now, October 24, 1983, the decision and order of the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County in the above captioned matter, No. 4863 S 1980, dated December 30,1981, is hereby affirmed.
The delay was to permit the Bureau to comply with the requirement of Section 691 of the Law, 72 P.S. §5869.691, that owner occupied property not be sold until at least ten days after the owner occupant has been personally served notice of the sale by the sheriff or his designee. This requirement was added to Section 691 by Section 4 of the Act of July 19, 1989, P.L. 417.
Section 601 of the Law reads, in pertinent part:
§5860.601 Date of sale
(a) (Commencing on the second Monday of September of each year or for the first year any county is operating under the provisions of this aot, at the bureau’s discretion, commencing on the second Monday of October, and for the first sale conducted under this act by a bureau, where claims have been validated in accordance with the provisions of this act, at the bureau’s discretion, commencing on the second Monday of October, following the expiration of the redemption period, or on any day to which a sale may he adjourned, or readjourned, such adjournment not to be for a longer period than sixty (60) days, or any day to which a sale may be continued, the bureau shall sell such property. . . . (Emphasis added.)
In the event of a continuance necessitated by the failure of someone to bid a property’s upset price, Section 610 of the Uaw, 72 P.S. §5860.610 is controlling and a tax claim bureau is specifically exempted from having to duplicate Section 602’s advertising requirements.