Section 5971h - Date of sale; extension of lien; adjournment; no tax sale where payments made by installments; discretion as to properties to be sold; fees, costs and commissions(a) No such sale shall be made before the first Monday of August in the second year succeeding the year in which the respective taxes are assessed and levied; but in every case, except as herein otherwise provided, sale shall be made within a period of five years from the date such taxes have heretofore been entered on the tax return docket, or from the date the lien thereof has last been extended or continued by filing the same in the office of the prothonotary, or from the date such taxes shall hereafter be entered on said docket, except in cases where such sale has been or shall hereafter be adjourned or readjourned beyond such period of time or prohibited during such period of time under the authority of this or any other act of Assembly. In all cases of adjournment or readjournment of any such sale and in all cases where the lien of any tax would under the provisions of this act expire or be lost prior to the sale of such property under the provisions of this act, such liens are hereby revived, preserved and extended and shall remain in full force and effect until the property against which such taxes are a lien is sold under the provisions of this act or the lien otherwise discharged.(b) For all taxes assessed and levied for the year one thousand nine hundred and thirty or any year prior thereto, and returned under the provisions of this or any other law, the sale shall be held on or before February first, one thousand nine hundred and forty; and for the taxes assessed and levied for the years one thousand nine hundred and thirty-one and one thousand nine hundred and thirty-two, the sale shall be held on or before May first, one thousand nine hundred and forty; and for taxes assessed and levied for the years one thousand nine hundred and thirty-three and one thousand nine hundred and thirty-four, the sale shall be held on or before the first Monday of August, one thousand nine hundred and forty.(c) No property shall be sold under the provisions of this act, at the times herein prescribed, when the delinquent taxes assessed and levied against such property are being paid upon the installment plan authorized and provided by any law abating penalties, interest and costs, or any of them, imposed upon unpaid delinquent taxes, or, when any payment shall have been made under such plan and even though a default shall have been made in the required payments, if the taxpayer has an opportunity under the said act to continue the installment payments at the subsequent installment period and secure the remaining benefits of said act. In all such cases the liens of such taxes are hereby fully preserved and extended for the entire installment period if there is no complete default under the terms of the said act, and if there shall be such a default, the said liens are hereby continued, preserved and extended until sold under the provisions of this act: Provided, however, That if the time for selling such property or properties under the other provisions of this act shall have expired at the time of such default, said property or properties shall be sold within six months after the date of such default.(d) The county treasurer, when requested by any taxing authority who deems it to their advantage, shall hold a sale of the property or properties of one or more taxables for the unpaid taxes assessed and levied against such property, separate and independent of any general tax sale of properties as provided by this act. The purpose of this clause is to provide a method whereby the property or properties of one or more delinquent taxables may be sold by the treasurer, within the time limits prescribed by this act, without the necessity of selling other properties against which taxes for the same year have been assessed and levied and returned, as herein provided, and which are unpaid.(e) After the date has been fixed for any such sale, it may be adjourned or readjourned from time to time, and in such case the advertisement and notice of a sale, as required by this act, may be given preceding the date of any adjourned or readjourned sale, in which case no prior advertisement or notice shall be required, and, in case the sales for different years' taxes be held on the same date, the advertisements and notices may be consolidated: Provided further, That if any such sale be adjourned or readjourned, after advertisement and notice, by public announcement at such sale, adjournment or readjournment, no additional advertisement or notice shall be necessary for such adjourned or readjourned sale: Provided further, That no such adjournment or readjournment shall be for a longer period than thirty days unless the county treasurer, with the consent in writing of the county commissioners and the approval of the judge of the court of the county in which the sale is pending, shall declare, at the time fixed for a sale of any adjournment or readjournments thereof, that, because of widespread economic and business depression and usual unemployment incident thereto, a sale would be inadvisable, in which case any such sale may be adjourned or readjourned at any one time and from time to time for a longer period, but in no case beyond the expiration of the period fixed for such sale by this amendment or beyond the date of the actual holding of the first subsequent sale for any other year's taxes; Provided, That when, after advertisement of a sale, it has been determined as aforesaid to adjourn any sale for taxes, the county treasurer shall publish, at the expense of the county, in at least two newspapers of general circulation in the county, if so many be published in the county, a brief notice or advertisement announcing said adjournment and the actual new date to which such sale for taxes has been adjourned.(f) For each tract of land so disposed of, the county treasurer shall be entitled to the following fees, which shall be taxed as part of the costs of such proceedings , and shall be paid the same as other costs: Advertising each tract, including printer's charge, the actual cost.
| Selling each tract, or part thereof, | .25 |
| Writing and signing each deed, | 1.50 |
| Acknowledging every deed, | .50 |
| Writing and filing every bond to acknowledge the purchase money | .25 |
The county shall, in the first instance, be liable for the cost of advertising treasurers' sales, and the fees collected for such advertising shall be paid into the county treasury for the use of the county.
For receiving and paying over the purchase money or taxes collected by him the county treasurer shall be entitled to a commission of two per centum (2%) thereof; such commission to be deducted from the amount to be paid to the taxing district upon any settlement with the taxing district, and upon presentation to the taxing district of a transcript of the information required to be compiled by the county treasurer by section eleven hereof.
1931, May 29, P.L. 280, § 8. As amended 1931 (Ex.Sess.), Dec. 31, P.L. 1510, § 1; 1932 (Ex.Sess.), Aug. 15, P.L. 50, § 1; 1933, May 3, P.L. 239, § 1; 1939, June 20, P.L. 498, § 4.