In Pennsylvania, some counties have two different tax sales; the “upset” sale, and the “judicial” sale. If tax sale properties are not sold at either of these two sales, the property then goes on the “repository” list and can be sold by private bid. The upset sale is held every year in the fall. It’s called an “upset” sale because the minimum bid for the properties in this sale is known as the “upset” price; which includes any unpaid taxes from the county as well as any municipal liens. If a property is not sold in this sale, it is sold in the “judicial” tax sale in the spring. Not all Pennsylvania counties have judicial sales but they all have an upset sale.

What you may not know about the upset sale is that all properties are sold subject to any liens or judgments. That means that if you purchase a tax deed at this sale, you are responsible for any other unpaid liens or judgments on the property. Most people assume that when they buy a property at a tax sale, they don’t have to worry about other liens such as a mortgage. This is not true at the upset sale. If you plan on bidding at any of these sales this fall, you’d better do your homework!

So how do you find out about other liens or judgments on tax sale properties? There are two ways that you could do this; one is going to cost you some money and the other is going to take some of your time. The first way is to hire a title search company to do a simple title search on all of the properties in the sale that you are interested in bidding on. This could turn out to be a little costly, so it’s not my method of choice. Another reason why I don’t hire a title search company to do title searches for me before the sale is that many of the properties will come off the sale list the day before or the morning of the sale. You may pay for a few title searches that you don’t even need because the properties that you wanted to bid on are not sold at the sale.

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