Cambridge lists properties for sale in effort to recoup unpaid taxes

The City of Cambridge is looking to recoup over $1 million in outstanding property taxes by selling the properties in question.

The sale is happening through the municipal tax sale legislation, a law that allows for a municipality to sell lands where the owner had defaulted on the property taxes for a minimum of two years.

There is an extensive period where the owner is given warnings to get their payments up to date. The owner can also pay the outstanding debt at anytime at which point the property is pulled off the market.

It looks like the five properties listed by the city will be sold, but one could prove to be difficult.

One of the properties in question is 415 Dundas St. N. It’s a former industrial site and more recently a homeless encampment well known to local law enforcement after several fires.

It has sat vacant for years as the outstanding tax bill kept rising. The city has listed it at a price of $813,689.67 but the property has an assessed value of $206,000. Cambridge Ward 4 Councillor Ross Earnshaw was a guest on The Mike Farwell Show and said that particular piece of land has issues.

“It’s a tired old industrial site. There was an industrial building there, I don’t know what was done. It’s quite likely that the lands are contaminated, I don’t know for sure but I certainly would suspect that.”

That’s likely to make a sale very difficult. If it goes unsold, the property would be tendered to the city.

The legislation allows only for the municipality to list the properties for the value of the unpaid taxes and is not responsible for liens or outstanding fees from other levels of government.

The other properties in questioned are listed below the assessed value, so there is the potential for a good deal. But, Earnshaw said it may not be the deal it appears to be.

“The legislation itself makes it clear, that if a person were to purchase these properties through the tax sale procedure, the municipality has no obligation to provide vacant possession to the successful purchaser. So, it’s caveat emptor or buyer beware.”

And, as Earnshaw mentioned, the city is under no obligation to make sure the property is vacant. Three of the five properties have homes on them so any potential buyer would then have the current occupants to deal with.

Potential buyers have until March 6 to express their interest.