Queens Borough President Melinda Katz today announced she will be hosting a tax lien assistance session at Queens Borough Hall on Wednesday, April 9, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. to help property owners whose real estate properties are potentially subject to lien sales due to unpaid property taxes and other charges.

     The City’s Department of Finance has been sending lien sale letters to many property owners who are behind on their property taxes, water and sewer bills or other property charges. The letters inform property owners that their properties are on a “Notice of Lien Sale” list due to their unpaid debts.

     Borough President Katz will be hosting her upcoming tax lien assistance session to help property owners avoid the Lien Sale. During the session, property owners will get one-on-one customer service from representatives from the City’s departments of Finance, Environmental Protection and Housing Preservation and Development. These representatives will help property owners make arrangements to either pay off their debts immediately or enter into installment payment agreements with the City that would allow them to pay their debts over time.

     “This upcoming tax lien assistance session will be a great opportunity for property owners to clear up any outstanding issues they may have with the City regarding unpaid property taxes and water and sewer bills,” Borough President Katz said. “It is much better for property owners to address these issues before their properties are subjected to a lien sale, because the third parties who buy these liens add substantial interest charges and fees to unpaid debts and can ultimately foreclose on a property if its debt remains unpaid.”

     The placement of a property on the Lien Sale list means the City can sell the lien it placed against the property to a third party private entity if the property owner does not pay off  his or her debt to the City, or enter into a payment agreement with the City, within a specified period.  If the lien is sold to a third party, that third party will then be authorized to collect the debt from the property owner, along a potentially substantial amount of fees and interest penalties. If the property owner does not pay off the debt to this third party within a certain time frame, the third party can foreclose on the property.

     The session will be held from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 9 in Room 200 of the second floor of Queens Borough Hall, which is located at 120-55 Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens. Subway riders can get to Borough Hall by taking the E or F trains to the Union Turnpike-Kew Gardens station.   Borough Hall is also served by several bus lines, including the Q60, Q46, Q10 and Q37 lines.