Recorder of deeds being sued again
Washington County Recorder of Deeds Deborah Bardella is the center of a lawsuit yet again by some of the same people who sued her three years ago.
On Thursday, Jan Ondra, George Ondra and Billy Joe Sanders, trustees for LotsofRealty.com LLC, 1640 N. Main St., Washington, plus Rebecca Sanders and Sam Smith, filed suit claiming Bardella failed or refused to convey to them more than 20 properties throughout Washington County free and clear of any taxes.
The group claims the properties were transferred to them with city and school district tax liens and municipal claims.
Also named as defendants in the suit are Portnoff Law Associates, of Norristown, the City of Washington, Washington, Ringgold and Donora school districts and Charleroi Borough and Cecil Township.
The Ondras and the Sanderses claim properties are sold with liens still attached to them, and Portnoff, who is contracted by various municipalities to collect delinquent tax claims and municipal claims, pursues them instead of previous owners or trustees. They also claim properties are not being assessed at their fair market value, and that Bardella does not report to the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue that transfer taxes are computed at the assessed fair market value rather than the pre-sale or post-sale fair market value.
“Bureau deeds are prepared which fail to include the required free-and-clear statutory language thus subject purchasers to the claims of third-party collectors,” the group argues in court documents.
The plaintiffs cite a state law that became effective Jan. 26, which amends the Municipal Claim and Tax Lien Law to provide for the collection of delinquent property tax claims through judgment liens as opposed to a municipal lien. Prior practice was that a municipal lien represented a monetary award in favor of taxing or municipal authority that related to a specific parcel of property. The change in law allows a judgment to stay with a person and a lien to stay with a property.
“Because of the prior practices of Bardella to require that an individual trustee be named on all tax claim bureau deeds, any lien or judgment wrongly is filed against the individual trustee and not the trust entity. In addition, the lien or judgment will now attach to any and all other property in the name if the individual trustee owned in the same county,” court documents said.
Blane Black, solicitor for the recorder of deeds office and revenue department, said this lawsuit is just “more of same.”
“It involves some of the same issues with this group in past,” he said. “They are just trying to avoid the terms.”
Black is referring at least two previous lawsuits filed by the Ondras and Billy Joe Sanders against Bardella. Black said the men are once again bringing up the issue of the use of trusts.
“Trusts need to be valid, not just made-up names. Therefore, a trustee must be designated. A trust can’t own property,” he said. “There is a proper way to do a deed when a trust is involved.”
Black said the men are also trying to remove school taxes that have yet to be assessed. If a tax sale was conducted in June, Black said the taxes leading up to the sale are removed. Taxes assessed for the following year are not.
“They want taxes eliminated for the next year. It can’t be done because they haven’t been assessed yet,”
The Ondras and the Sanderses are seeking unspecified declaratory and injunctive relief and incidental damages. They also request that the Washington County Court compel the defendants to comply with tax sale laws, among other requests.
Bardella declined to comment. The Ondras and the Sanderses’ attorney, Herbert Terrell, did not return calls for comment.
In the previous lawsuits, the Ondras and Sanders claimed that Bardella, who also serves as director of the county tax revenue department, which includes the tax claim bureau, delayed the transfer of deeds by imposing additional requirements that are not part of state law through her position as recorder of deeds. The lawsuit resulted in a lengthy battle in which former Washington County President Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca directed Bardella to record deeds that her office had rejected because they lacked information. But the court also ordered those listing a trust as the seller of property to identify the trustees and have the trustees’ signatures notarized.
Reporter Barbara S. Miller contributed to this article.