By Bernstein-Burkley
Bernstein-Burkley was recently involved in an interesting case. In this one, our client purchased a property from a tax sale. The property was part of an estate, and one of the heirs filed a motion to redeem the property in state court pursuant to 53 P.S. § 7293(a). The Tax Sale Redemption Period statute gives the property owner a period of nine months from the day the sheriff issues the deed from the tax sale to redeem the property by paying the purchaser the amount of the delinquent taxes, plus costs and interest.
The heir filed for bankruptcy while the redemption period was pending, and filed a Chapter 13 Plan that proposed to pay the redemption amount over the 60-month-plan term instead of the statutory nine months. If the debtor had succeeded in her plan, this would have had negative implications for tax sale purchasers, who would hold title to a home in limbo for five years while the bankruptcy was playing out.
Fortunately, the bankruptcy court ruled in our favor and found that the statutory period could be extended by at most an additional 60 days pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 108(b). The case law was divided, but the court found the case of In re Mangano, 253 B.R. 399 (D. N.J. 2000) more persuasive than In re Hammond, 420 B.R. 633 (Bkr. W.D. Pa 2009). In Mangano, the court found that the 10-day period to redeem a property after a sheriff’s sale in New Jersey could not be extended past 60 days after the petition date pursuant to Section 108(b).
