Auctions at the Justice Center 1

The Bergen County Sheriff’s Office is the largest law enforcement agency in all of Bergen County. With more than 500 dedicated personnel, responsibilities include a broad range of services and functions which assist your community and protect its safety.

Surprisingly, with all that your Sheriff’s Office is doing everyday, one of the topics I am most frequently asked about are Sheriff’s Foreclosure Sales. In an effort to assist the general public in understanding Foreclosure Sales and how they can participate, I’ve put together a brief guide to how the process works:

All properties sold by auction at the Justice Center are advertised in the Record every Wednesday as well as a local newspaper, for four consecutive weeks. In addition to the newspaper advertising, a list of properties scheduled for sale during the upcoming week is available for viewing at the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office.

If you are interested in a particular piece of property, a title search is recommended before you actually bid. You can conduct a title search on your own at the County Clerk’s office at no charge or you can hire a company to do a title search for you.

Sales of property are “open type” auction sales. Initially a minimum bid of $100 dollars is made by the plaintiff in order to start the bidding process. Subsequent bids are in $100 increments. Bids in excess of $100,000 are in $1,000 increments.

The successful bidder is required to post a deposit of 20% of the total bid price in cash, certified or cashier’s check immediately at the closing of that sale.

Certified checks and cashier checks should be made out to you. If you are the highest bidder the check will be endorsed over to the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office.

The balance of the bid is due in 30 calendar days from the date of the sale.

The successful bidder upon final payment of the bid will receive a Sheriff’s Deed. However, this Deed doesn’t give clear title to the property.

To obtain a clear title, all outstanding liens and encumbrances must be satisfied. If a purchaser does not complete the sale the purchaser can be held liable for the deposit.

Further assistance is available through the Foreclosure Unit at the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office (201) 336-3500 or on our website at http://www.bcsd.us.