RUMFORD — Selectmen next month will discuss cracking down on delinquent property-tax payers and establishing new policies toward that end.

That came to light Thursday night after Town Manager Carlo Puiia explained what Rumford does with tax-acquired properties.

Normally, tax bills are mailed out around the first of September. When a tax bill is unpaid by June 30 — the end of Rumford’s fiscal year — the tax collector’s office issues a 30-day notice by certified mail in July telling the taxpayer to pay their taxes in 30 days or a lien will be placed on their property, Puiia said.

If the bill remains unpaid and a lien is placed on the property, he said the tax collector also notifies the mortgage holder or anyone with an interest in the property that it’s under lien.

Maine law, Puiia said, then gives the taxpayer 18 months to pay the tax bill in full.

Prior to the expiration of that 18-month period, the property holder will receive a 30-day notice from the town treasurer telling them the lien is about to expire.

“If the tax bill is unpaid by the end of that 30 days, then it’s what they call ‘automatic foreclosure,’” Puiia said. “The town doesn’t have to do anything else. It just automatically can take possession of that property for unpaid taxes.”

He said the town seized one property after its owner failed to pay taxes back to 1997.

There are also a few more that were back to 2005-07, and up to the present, Puiia said.

Once the town forecloses on a property, the taxpayer will get the first of three letters, he said.

“It notifies them that they’ve lost their property and that the town is now the owner, having foreclosed,” he said.

The next letter tells them to vacate the premises in 30 days and the third letter gives them so many days to remove tangible property or the town will auction it off to defray costs.

This has never been an issue in the past, he said Tuesday. However, in the last decade, Rumford has accumulated 24 properties for unpaid taxes.

He told selectmen Thursday night that he’s gotten owners to pay back taxes and fees to place 12 properties back on the tax rolls. However, of the remaining 12, four are multifamily and too dilapidated and hazardous to return to the tax rolls.

Puiia suggested selling them contingent on demolishing them “or we may want to tear them down ourselves.”

“The remaining eight properties, they have received their notice of tangible property, so if I don’t get any action in the next month, then those will be auctioned off,” he said.

“Very good, thank you,” Selectman Chairman Greg Buccina said.

After viewing the list of property owners, which wasn’t made public, Selectman Jolene Lovejoy said they “are not in poverty.”

She asked selectmen to crack down on delinquent taxpayers and said she wants an item on the agenda to establish policies to that effect.

Selectman Jeremy Volkernick agreed, saying people shouldn’t be going three years without paying taxes.

Puiia said he’d place it on the board’s Oct. 20 agenda.

In other business, selectmen unanimously approved a timber harvesting plan proposed for three of four town lots that will bring in more than an estimated $130,000.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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