MAYVILLE — Chautauqua County will extend the time period delinquent property owners will have to pay property taxes to avoid the County’s current real property tax foreclosure from April 15 to June 18, 2020. The county’s 2020 tax foreclosure proceeding was commenced as of Jan. 2, and provided that the last day to redeem a property or file an answer in the proceeding was April 15. The county will also extend the last day to file an answer in the tax foreclosure proceeding to June 18.

The county’s extension is consistent with New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s March 20 executive order that there shall be no enforcement of a foreclosure for a period of ninety days until June 18.

“Although these are taxes that have been owing for over two years, full and fair treatment of our citizens requires we recognize the current issues of economic uncertainty and the directive that we should be avoiding unnecessary in-person contact,” said Chautauqua County Executive Paul M. Wendel, Jr.

“The COVID-19 crisis has made it more difficult for property owners behind on their real property taxes to pay them,” said County Real Property Tax Director Jim Caflisch. “In this critical time, the County will appropriately extend the period for people to pay their taxes to avoid a tax foreclosure if at all possible.”

In addition, Caflisch said, “The Real Property Tax Department will be closed for walk in payments starting Monday, March 30th and we ask the public to call our office to find out the amount owing. Our hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.”

Scheduling of any further steps in the foreclosure process, including the public tax auction, will be announced in the near future.

For more information, please contact the Real Property Tax Department by phone at 753-4221, email at: CCTAX@co.chautauqua.ny.us, or visit our tax lookup: http://app.co.chautauqua.ny.us/cctaxonline/#search.