Taxation on a Property Purchased at a Judicial Sale

In Hanoverian, Inc. v. Lehigh County Board of Assessment, 701 A.2d 288, 289 (Pa. Cmwlth. 1997) the taxpayer argued that the fact that it purchased property at a judicial sale after the statutory bar dates for filing a tax assessment appeal had passed for a purchase price that was substantially less than the assessed value constituted a "unique and exceptional circumstance" requiring the grant of a right to appeal nunc pro tunc. Hanoverian, Inc., 701 A.2d at 289. The Court disagreed because when the purchase was made at the tax sale, the taxpayer knew of the property's tax assessment and that bar date for that year's appeal had passed.