Update March 5
The last properties slated for this week’s tax sale have been paid in full by their owners, so the auction was cancelled. Overall, the town’s revenue collection initiative which began in July 2014 recovered $971,317 in delinquent taxes.
Original Article
For the first time in New Canaan, the town is putting up for bid in a public auction properties whose owners are three-plus years delinquent in paying local taxes—including the Silvermine Market building (the structure only, not the business) and in another case a property eight years late and owing more than $200,000.
54 and 56 Forest St., New Canaan. Credit: Michael Dinan
A “tax sale” has been set for 10 a.m. on March 5 at Waveny for five properties—54 and 56 Forest St., 527 Smith Ridge Road, 61 Sturbridge Hill Road and 1032 Silvermine Road—the first three of which are owned by the same party, according to documents on file with the Town Clerk.
Reached by NewCanaanite.com, town officials said the rare step has been taken for delinquent taxes only in cases where all other options were exhausted.
Tax Collector Rosanna DiPanni confirmed that the public auction is a first for New Canaan.
The tax sale will be run by Adam Cohen, an attorney with Bridgeport-based Pullman & Comley LLC whose specializations include lien foreclosures.
Cohen said the taxes owed and delinquency are as follows:
- 527 Smith Ridge Road—$207,636.89 from the 2006 Grand List;
- 54 Forest St.—$55,828.43 from the 2007 Grand List;
- 56 Forest St.—$83,685.81 from the 2007 Grand List;
- 61 Sturbridge Hill Road—$28,128.97 from the 2011 Grand List;
- 1032 Silvermine Road—$14,798.59 from the 2011 Grand List.
The collection process started late last summer with letters sent to about 10 or 12 New Canaan property owners whose taxes were three years late or more, Cohen said.
“The people in this auction either did not respond at all or did not comply with payment plans,” Cohen said.
The party that owns the Forest Street and Smith Ridge Road properties has owned them for at least 30 years, according to tax assessor field cards. The Sturbridge Hill Road property appears to have been in the same family for at least 32 years, and the 1885-built Silvermine Market building at 1032 Silvermine Road, which includes living quarters, has been owned by the same LLC since 2007—a company whose managing partner is listed as a Stamford man, according to records on file with the Connecticut Secretary of the State.
Officials took several months to schedule the auction and the law gives the property owners six months after the auction before title changes hands, so the entire process takes up to about one year, Cohen said. If the auction goes through and properties are sold, proceeds will go to pay the taxes owed as well as expenses associated with the auction itself—such as fees for title searches, attorneys’ hourly rates, advertising and certified mailings—and then a court decides what happens with any money left over, though usually a mortgage bank is covered first, Cohen said.
All properties will be up for bidding, one after another, at the scheduled auction, with the town setting the minimum bid. No one registers in advance, though all bidders bring a deposit and a deadline is set for the winning bid to pay off the balance. More information about tax sales is available here.