There are two ways: Either you must pay all delinquent taxes, interest, penalties and fees before the redemption date or, if you are eligible, you may enter into an Installment Agreement with the Tax Enforcement Officer.

No. All deadlines are firm, extensions are not possible.

No. New York State Real Property Tax Law requires that taxes must be redeemed in reverse chronological order. This means that the newest taxes must be paid first. Therefore, all taxes, penalties, interest, and fees must be paid in full or put on an Installment Agreement in order to remove the parcel from the foreclosure list.

An Installment Agreement allows you to pay off your delinquent taxes over a period of two years. If you qualify, you may enter into an Installment Agreement by paying a 25% down payment of all delinquent taxes, interest, fees and penalties on all properties you own within Jefferson County, excluding the City of Watertown. The balance is paid in eight fairly equal quarterly installments over the next two years. During the life of the Installment Agreement, you must pay all new taxes in full and on time.

Any property owner with delinquent taxes qualifies unless they have defaulted on a previous Installment Agreement within the past three years, or have lost property through tax foreclosure during that time.

No. You are eligible as long as you are at least 30 days late in paying a property tax.

It is your responsibility to know when taxes are due. If you do not receive a tax bill, you should call the Town Tax Collector. By law, penalties and interest cannot be waived except by majority vote of the County Legislature.

Tax liens follow the property, not the person who owned it. It should have been caught when you bought the property, but that does not alter the fact that the bill is yours.

No. The practice of purchasing a "Tax Sale Certificate" ended years ago. Ownership remains with the owner of record no matter who pays the taxes.

If the taxes remain unpaid, the property will generally be offered by the County at its annual Tax Auction. If you are the high bidder at the auction the property will be yours.

Visit our auctioneer's website at www.brzostek.com. Also, about two weeks before the auction, booklets are available at the Tax Enforcement Office on the 4th floor of the Jefferson County Office Building, at a cost of $5.00. These booklets list the auction properties (with pictures, when available), list the auction rules and answer many other questions pertaining to auctioned property.

No, but if you are unable to attend the auction, contact Brzostek's Auction Co. at 315-678-2000 to arrange for Absentee Bidding. Be sure to call well in advance of the auction for instructions as there are deadlines by which you must deposit the amount of your bid.

No. Once the County takes title to the property, the previous owner's interest is extinguished.

The County makes every effort to identify all interested parties, including mortgage holders and lien holders, by having an abstract company do a search for each of the properties on the proposed foreclosure list. The mortgagees and other interested parties have the opportunity to redeem the property by paying all taxes, penalties, interest and fees. If they fail to do so, their interest is extinguished.

All tax liens which predate the Tax Foreclosure are extinguished by the Foreclosure, but by buying at the Auction you are agreeing to pay the School District and Village Taxes (if applicable) for the year in which the Auction is held.

We cannot guarantee that you will not be responsible for these bills. You are buying at a Tax Auction, these are some of the risks you take buying tax foreclosed property.

The property you buy may be subject to easements, covenants, reserved rights in others, zoning and building code restrictions. Research the property you are interested in carefully before bidding.

None. All properties are sold in "as is" condition. We pass on to you title in the condition that we obtained it from the previous owner through the foreclosure. You will receive a Quitclaim deed which means that there are no warranties made by the County as seller. We do not survey the property and cannot guarantee its boundaries, size or location.