Pennsylvania Statutes Title 53 P.S. Municipal and Quasi-Municipal Corporations § 7287. Petition to sell property;  order;  redemption;  notice of sale

(a) When a claimant in any county of the first class has obtained a judgment upon its tax or municipal claim against any vacant lot located in an area which has been certified as a conservation area by the Planning Commission having jurisdiction in the county, and there shall be charged against the property tax delinquencies for a period of at least five years, the claimant may file a petition in the court in which the proceeding is pending, setting forth the facts necessary to establish the right to sell the property, together with a title search or a title insurance policy showing the state of the record and the ownership of the property and of all tax and municipal claims, mortgages, ground rents or other charges on, or estates in, the real property, as shown by the official record of the county in which the real property is situate.  The court shall thereupon grant a rule upon all parties shown to be interested, to appear and show cause why a decree should not be made that the property be sold, free and clear of the respective tax and municipal claims, liens, mortgages, ground rents, charges and estates and without any right of redemption after a sale.

(b) If, upon a hearing, the court is satisfied that (1) service of the rule has been made upon the interested parties in the manner provided for the service of writs of scire facias in section eighteen of the act of May sixteen, one thousand nine hundred twenty-three (Pamphlet Laws 207),  1 for the obtaining of a judgment upon tax and municipal claims, and (2) notice of the rule has been published by the claimant in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the county and in the authorized legal periodical published therein, if any, and (3) the facts stated in the petition are true, it shall order and decree that the property be sold at a subsequent sheriff sale at a time to be fixed thereafter by the court free and clear of all tax and municipal claims, liens, mortgages, ground rents, charges and estates, to the highest bidder at the sale, and the purchaser at the sale shall take and forever thereafter have an absolute title to the property sold, free and discharged of all tax and municipal claims, liens, mortgages, ground rents, charges and estates of whatsoever kind.  The property shall not thereafter by subject to any right of redemption.  Notice of the sale shall be published by the claimant in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the county and in the authorized legal periodical published therein, if any.