(a) Effective January 1, 2009, a foreclosure education and prevention fee in the amount of two hundred dollars ($200.00) shall be paid by the highest bidder of a public sale of any foreclosed real property conducted by the Sheriff. Said fee shall be paid by a person to the Sheriff, in either check or cash, immediately upon the time that the person is declared by the Sheriff to be the highest bidder at the public sale, and the failure to pay said fee immediately upon that person being declared the highest bidder shall result in the real property being re-introduced immediately for public sale.
(b) All fees collected pursuant to subsection (a) shall be deposited by the Sheriff into a Foreclosure Education and Prevention Fund. The proceeds of said fund shall be allocated as follows: (i) fifty percent (50%) of the proceeds shall be allocated to the Office of Consumer Affairs for the continued operating expenses of said Office; (ii) fifty percent (50%) of the proceeds shall be allocated to the Foreclosure Task Force Fund, which shall fund the salaries and benefits of one (1) employee of the Fiscal Office and two (2) employees of the Sheriff who comprise the Sheriff’s Foreclosure Task Force, and any costs associated with investigations performed by the Sheriff’s Foreclosure Task Force. Said funds shall be appropriated from the Foreclosure Education and Prevention Fund to the Office of Consumer Affairs and Foreclosure Task Force Fund by the County Council prior to being used in the manner set forth above. At the end of each calendar year, any unencumbered funds remaining in the Foreclosure Education and Prevention Fund shall revert to the general fund.
(c) This section does not apply to real property sold by the Sheriff at public sale as a result of a delinquent tax foreclosure.
(Ord. 2008-394. Adopted 9-29-08.)