People who are three years behind on property taxes in Kamloops will have an extra year to catch up.

Council has put off this year’s tax sale until September of 2021, because of the pandemic.

Finance director Kathy Humphrey says on average there are nine homes in Kamloops each year that are auctioned off, because they haven’t paid property taxes in three years.

“The average is gradually dropping as the last few years have only had four or five. I believe last year only had two properties that went for sale,” Humphrey says.

“So the revenue team does a lot of work contacting property owners and contacting mortgage holders on the properties to let them know that they’re delinquent, to try to get people in a position where their property is not going up for tax sale.”

The municipal tax sale usually happens on the last Monday in September each year.

“With the COVID emergency, the province has allowed councils to choose to defer property tax sales for one year if they want. So people who are three years delinquent in 2020 will come up for tax sale in 2021,” Humphrey says.

She says many other neighboring communities are also putting off the tax sale until year.