Tax Foreclosure Auction FAQ

A municipality may stipulate in the ‘terms and conditions’ of the auction that you may become responsible for partial or full payment of the current year’s taxes which may include partial or full school taxes. It is likely that those amounts are pro-rated to the date of the auction. There may also be outstanding village taxes (also possibly pro-rated) and water or sewer rents that are due. Before bidding, ask about these outstanding amounts with the Treasurer’s Office or at the local municipal level.

NYS does not recognize the term “land-locked” in a legal way because all property owners have a right to access their property. A “land-locked” property is one described as not having road frontage in some manner or a “right-of-way” or “easement” defined in the deed. We describe these parcels in our catalog as follows; May not have road frontage. You should consult the history of deeds pertaining to the property you are interested in and, the Schedule “A” metes and bounds description. It is also a good idea to look at the deeds of adjacent parcels since access rights may be mentioned there.

Yes, vacant land can be visited any time by driving past the parcel. Un-occupied improved structures will be viewed according to a ‘showing schedule’ organized by our field team. Please do not trespass in advance of our showings. In the event of virtual showings, our team will visit the property for photographs and videos and share them for public viewing on our web site. Do not attempt to visit occupied properties on your own. Such property should be viewed from the roadway only. We never advise you to approach occupied property or delinquent owners or tenants. Consult Town of Village officials to learn what they may know about the condition or habitability of any structures including known code violations. Keep in mind that ‘helpful neighbors’ may also be interested in buying the property and may not always offer complete or accurate information. NYSAuctions.com, Absolute Auctions & Realty, Inc. and our client-municipalities assume no liability regarding injuries you may sustain at these properties.

Generally, municipalities conduct a foreclosure proceeding followed by a public auction once a year. Special circumstances may require a second auction event within the same year.

No. Our client-municipalities have chosen to sell their tax foreclosed properties at a public, ‘arms-length’ auction.

A tax lien certificate sale is where a tax lien against the property is bid by declining ‘interest rates’ offered by the purchaser in order to enjoy a rate of return while the lien is in effect and when paid. (There is more to understand, but this is not what our team is doing in New York.)  A tax foreclosure deed auction is a public auction of real property where the county has; A) completed a legal foreclosure proceeding against the delinquent owner, B) has been granted title to the real property above all other claims by the final judgement and order of a court, and C) the public has an opportunity to purchase such property after successfully becoming the highest bidder.

Assessed Value and Assessment relate to the value that the local assessor has placed on the property for taxable purposes.

You do not legally own the property until the deed has been recorded in the County Clerk’s Office. The time required for recording varies from county to county. (NOTE: NYS law states that “title vests upon the recording of the deed.”)

Most municipalities do not evict delinquent owners or tenants from tax foreclosed properties, so the responsibility for eviction becomes that of the successful purchaser.

No. In tax foreclosure auctions, municipalities sell title to real property. The title of personal property still belongs to the delinquent taxpayer.

We suggest that you talk to your attorney regarding this issue before you dispose of any personal property left behind by prior owners or tenants. We suggest that you give the prior owner/tenants a period of time to arrange for removal of personal property and that if no response is received by a certain date that you will dispose of the remaining personal property as you see fit. Please consult with an attorney regarding this issue before you dispose of any personal property left behind by prior owners or tenants.

After following steps suggested in 11 & 12 above, you may need to contact DMV about how to dispose of or re-title abandoned vehicles.

Municipalities permit the delinquent owner to repurchase their former property from the municipality. Some municipalities permit repurchases up to the close of business on the day before the auction while others stop repurchases a week to two months prior to the auction date.

We are not aware of any municipality that allows delinquent taxpayers to re-purchase their property once the deed has been recorded to the purchaser at the auction.

Most municipalities in New York State have chosen to follow Article 11 of the New York State Real Property Law. The law requires that municipalities conduct a title search to identify all known owners and other ‘interested parties’ (like lienholders) who have recorded liens in the County Clerk records.  Those lien holders must be served notice of the impending foreclosure and given a specific amount of time to come forward and protect their interest. Once that time has passed, those lien holders are forever barred by law from coming forth again to enforce their lien. Your concern in this matter is that one of the abstractors while completing the title search, accidentally misses a specific lien holder. Therefore, we urge everyone to conduct their own research into their property of interest, making a list of interested parties and verifying with the Treasurer’s/Finance Office that all lien holders were properly sent notice. Your list and theirs should match 100%.

Municipalities are making notification to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) regarding Federal Liens recorded against tax foreclosed properties. In those cases, the IRS has up to 120 days from the date of the auction to purchase the property from the successful auction purchaser for the total purchase amount including any commission paid and closing fees. For auction parcels that have Federal Liens against them and if proper notification has not been made, the successful purchaser can either negotiate a lien release or wait until the lien expires.

Municipalities will generally work with a successful purchaser if it can be proven that the damage occurred between the date of the auction and the date of closing. If the property had been occupied and no inspection was made prior to the auction, then it may be difficult to determine when the damage was done. Municipalities want to sell their tax foreclosed properties and will generally negotiate a satisfactory agreement.

Financing is not a ‘contingency’ in the auction sales contract. We suggest that if financing is required by you to complete a purchase that you arrange and pre-qualify with a lender prior to the auction date while informing them that you are purchasing a NYS RPTL Article 11 foreclosure deed. If you fail to pay the balance due by the closing date, you will forfeit your deposit.

If you fail to pay the balance due by the closing date, you will forfeit your deposit and may become subject to additional legal action commenced by the municipality.

Generally, we sell all properties at that auction. The reason for this is that we do not typically have a ‘starting bid’ requirement. Bidding starts from the floor, advance tendered bids, or absentee bids. On the rare occasion we have property that does not receive bids, it could be available for sale from the municipality after the auction.

The State Legislature initially enacted the New York Agricultural Districts Law in 1971 to protect and promote the availability of land for farming purposes. The formation of agricultural districts is intended to counteract the impact which non-farm development can have upon the continuation of farm businesses. The Agricultural Districts Law provides for reduced property tax bills for land in agricultural production by limiting the assessment of such land to its prescribed agricultural assessment value. Owners whose land satisfies the eligibility requirements may apply for an agricultural assessment.

Absolutely! We encourage everyone to attend the auction in any way possible. You will be entertained and amazed by the process. Best of all, it is free and fun.

In New York State, we are legally responsible to execute your offer in full. If you leave an absentee or written bid because you cannot participate during the auction, it will be tendered in full by the Auctioneer during the bidding process as this is considered to be an ‘offer to purchase’ by you for the property.

Simply raise your pre-numbered bid card to get the attention of the Auctioneer or one of the “bid assistants.” After the Auctioneer or bid assistant has acknowledged your bidding participation, they will know to keep checking back with you for additional bids. If the bidding exceeds your limit, simply shake your head “no” when the Auctioneer or bid assistant looks to you for another bid or just put your bid card down. If you continue bidding and become the successful bidder, hold up your bid card so the number can be recorded by the clerk. We also recommend that you write the parcel lot number and winning bid amount on your bid card in the space provided so you will have a record of your purchase prior to heading to check-out with the cashier.

To bid online, you will need to create a user account (username and password) on our bidding site. Next, you will fill-in and execute the online registration forms by acknowledging your e-signature. You will be required to provide a valid credit/debit card issued in the name of at least one of the purchasers to be named on the auction sales contract. (Please call your credit/debit card provider in advance of bidding and let them know that you will be buying real estate on a particular date. They will flag your account in their computer system so that when you become the successful bidder, we can immediately process your required down payment.) It is important that even if you have exceptional credit and a strong history of payment, you let the card provider know of your actions before you bid. Unless you buy real estate on ‘plastic’ daily, they usually decline the transaction, and this seriously slows the entire process for you and our team.)

While COVID-19 safety procedures are in place, we do not expect to conduct in-person auctions. Some municipalities may opt to collect cash for down-payments at their offices. Please read the ‘terms and conditions’ of the auction as soon as they become available to understand your payment options.

Yes – for official bank or teller checks payable directly to the municipal official stated in the ‘terms and conditions’ of the auction. No to any personal or business checks of any kind. No to home equity lines of credit. No to electronic funds transfers (unless allowed under the ‘terms and conditions’ of the auction.)

No. If you leave the auction and fail to go immediately to the check-out cashier upon being declared the high-bidder, you will not be allowed to complete your transaction and may find that by the time your return, the municipality has directed us to sell it to someone else! We have created a down payment ‘calculator’ on our web site so you can easily determine what dollar amount will be required when you enter your maximum bid. You can always over-fund your down payment, but you can never be short of money.

That may become an expensive decision. If you fail to ‘close’ by the due date for any reason whatsoever, you will forfeit and lose your down payment and may be subject to additional legal action commenced by the municipality.

When selling tax foreclosed real estate, we rarely if ever use silent or written-bid auctions. Our auction software program allows for a ‘dynamic ending’ in these cases. This means that if there is bidding activity, the auction will not end until the bidding has stopped beyond a specific time and allowing for any last-second bids. For example, if an auction is scheduled to end at 11:00AM and you were to submit an online bid at 10:59AM, the auction will automatically be extended by 2 minutes. This allows other interested bidders an opportunity to submit a counterbid. If a counterbid is submitted, the auction is again extended by an additional 2 minutes, allowing you and all other bidders to submit another counterbid. This time extension continues until there are no more bids received and the extended time ends.