Tax Claim Bureau's Reasonable Efforts to Locate a Current Address

In In re Sale of Property of Dalessio, 657 A.2d 1386 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1995), after sending notice of the tax sale via certified mail, the tax claim bureau received a return notice with the notation "FWD. ORD. EXP.," and then attempted to locate the owner's current address by searching: (1) telephone directories; (2) county-wide occupation records; (3) county-wide real estate assessment records; (4) tax collectors' records; (5) voter's registration records; (6) register and recorder's office records. Id. at 1388 n.9, 1388-89. All of these attempts proved futile, and the property, which consisted of an oil and gas estate on approximately three-hundred acres, was sold at an upset tax sale. Upon learning of the sale of his property, one of the owners filed exceptions to the tax sale, which the trial court subsequently dismissed. This Court affirmed the trial court's decision to dismiss the exceptions, reasoning that, despite the owner's contention of the possible existence of other means of inquiry, it could not conclude that the tax claim bureau's efforts to locate the owner's current address were not reasonable. Id. at 1389.