Limerick

[Larry]

People are people everywhere you go in this world. Amazing, you would think a civilized and fairly well protected (from the legality point of view) country like Canada does not have so many scum bags.
I might end up with a -1 on my karma now.

[Pfm1011]

Frank

In regards to not letting your friends bid, I highly respect your integrity however I dont think there is anything legally or morally wrong subject to the treasurer declaring possible conflict and having a third party ensure the envelopes remain sealed prior to the opening.   IE they go direct to the vault upon arrival to the city and treasurer never comes in contact with the envelopes.   Of course no matter how strict and professional you are, there will be one of the losers screaming how he got ripped off ( and it will probably be the guy who came in ninth place). Some of these small towns , its impossible not to have a friend or family of a town employee as one of the bidders.

[justlooking]

I must say that I'm quite surprised that relatives of the treasurer are allowed to bid. Could this not be considered a conflict and should the winning bidder be the relative, subject to dispute and cancellation of th sale? 

[Frank]

I must say that I'm quite surprised that relatives of the treasurer are allowed to bid. Could this not be considered a conflict and should the winning bidder be the relative, subject to dispute and cancellation of th sale? 

There is absolutely nothing in any legislation that forbids anyone...even the Treasurer himself, from bidding on a tax sale property.  It is a matter of personal integrity, and in most cases there exist Municipal and other professional codes of conduct. 

The last thing that a professional in that position wants is for his/her integrity to be called into question.  In the municipal environment, you live and work in a fishbowl -- the local media would pick it up quicker than a baggie in a scoop your puppies poop zone, and it would become a local scandal.  Whether innocent or guilty of any kind of misdeed, you would be considered suspect and some Councillors (both present and future -- some will run on a platform of cleaning up the perceived mess at city hall), will be out to get you.

I had many a friend/relative asking about properties that were up for tax sale.  They wanted to save the cost of searching title, and get to know everything you knew about the property...for obvious reasons.   I had a standard response.  As pfm says however, total exclusion is somewhat impossible, and in the event of someone you know bidding it is pretty much standard procedure to remove yourself from the equation.  Life sucks. 

[Dave2]

Farrouk:

Out of curiosity what was the standing of the relative.  I am curious because there was a really close
separation between first and second bidders.  The one I think it might be was way down the list at a little over 1/2 the winning bid.

Dave2