‘An embarrassment’: Deed delays in Philly Sheriff’s Office prompt lawsuits

Sheriff sales are not supposed to be this complicated.

The property goes to auction. The proceeds of the sale are used to pay back taxes and utility bills. Then the deed is transferred to the new owner.

After more than five years in office, Sheriff Rochelle Bilal has yet to master this basic function.

On Monday, a debt-acquisition firm filed a motion for sanctions against the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office in Common Pleas Court, claiming that it bought a property at auction in May 2024 and has yet to receive the deed.

“For approximately two years since the sheriff’s sale, plaintiff is still paying ongoing taxes and preservation costs to protect the property without the benefit of legally possessing the property,” reads the complaint filed by Amos Financial L.L.C., based in Illinois.

On Tuesday, another firm sued the sheriff’s office, saying that it paid nearly $1 million for eight properties between December 2025 and early last month, but that Bilal’s staff has ignored “repeated requests” to even begin the process of transferring ownership.

“This problem is unique to Philadelphia,” wrote attorney Daniel Bernheim, who is representing New Jersey-based JSB Property Group, “and it is an embarrassment.”

The sheriff’s office and the city’s law department declined to comment Friday on the latest court filings or the ongoing sheriff sales problems, which have dogged Bilal for years.

Bilal, who was elected in 2019 and is now halfway into her second four-year term, has previously insisted this issue has been resolved, pointing to millions of dollars spent on software upgrades. Yet many buyers say they have seen little change.

The Inquirer first reported in July 2024 on widespread delays in recording deeds following mortgage or tax foreclosures. It is supposed to take 70 days to record the deeds under the state rules of civil procedure, but under Bilal, some buyers have waited a year or longer, leaving often vacant and tax-delinquent properties in limbo.

“It’s like a Seinfeld episode,” said a real estate agent who in the spring of 2024 had resorted to visiting Bilal’s office in futile attempts to obtain a deed.

“A debacle,” said utility worker Dave Brown that summer, as he waited for a deed to a rowhouse he had bought in November 2023 as a first-time renovation project.

“I feel like I’ve been robbed,” said a woman who purchased an investment property with her husband in March 2024 and was still waiting for a deed that November.

The Inquirer’s analysis in 2024 found that in February and March of that year, the sheriff’s office had submitted just 29 deeds for recording, nearly all of which corresponded to auctions that took place 200 to 300 days prior.

Without a deed, the new owners cannot access properties to renovate, rent, or demolish them. Realtors cannot list them for resale. Trash accumulates. Weather takes a toll. Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections violations pile up.

After initially denying any significant delays, Bilal acknowledged in July 2024 that there was a problem and said her office would conduct an audit.

“Once completed,” Bilal spokesperson Teresa Lundy said in a statement that month, “the result of the audit and our updated policy will be made public.”

In September 2025, Lundy said in an email that “the primary causes of these delays have been identified and corrected.” She declined to reveal what the audit found or provide other details.

“We are working diligently and collaboratively with the City Law Department, law firms, buyers, and constituents to ensure timely deed recording and consistent updates,” she wrote.

In 2023, the office entered into a 10-year, $7.5 million software contract with Tyler Technologies, which Bilal said would make the sheriff sale process faster and more efficient.

Yet the office has shown only a marginal increase in deed processing.

Between January and March 2025, the city recorded 180 deeds related to sheriff sales. This year, during that same time period, the city recorded 185 sheriff sale deeds.

The office still lists many more properties for sale than it processes in a given month. As a result, it is unlikely to eliminate its backlog of properties that have been sold at auction but not yet deeded to their new owners.

Roughly 440 properties are currently slated to be sold at a single April mortgage foreclosure sale, more than double the number of deeds the office has submitted all year.

In the motion for sanctions filed Monday by Amos Financial, the firm wrote: “After 14 months and 26 requests, the Sheriff failed to provide its post-sale cost sheet, let alone prepare a deed.”

Departmental e-mails obtained by The Inquirer through a Right-to-Know request last year show a string of lawyers for banks and other buyers complaining to the office about chronic delays in deed processing in excess of six months.

Attorneys in 10 sheriff sale cases that year filed for legal sanctions in court, citing processing delays or lack of communication from the sheriff’s office. In another email exchange from last May, an attorney at the LOGS Legal Group inquired about the status of 27 sheriff sale properties.

“I continually see emails from my office to yours that go without any response, let alone a justifiable explanation for some of the extended delays we are experiencing,” LOGS attorney Samantha Gable wrote. “My clients are getting increasingly frustrated with the wait times as closings and deadlines have been completely missed, and have now requested that we visit your office IN PERSON on a regular basis to obtain these documents.”

Records show the sheriff’s office eventually resolved those issues and avoided sanctions after senior administrators at the office intervened to move the sales along.

Buyers who do not hire a lawyer have had less luck getting deeds to their new properties.

Bernheim, who sued Bilal last week on behalf of JSB Property Group, said he had to threaten to depose Bilal in 2024 before her office would hand over the deed to a previous client.

Bernheim, who also serves as a Lower Merion Township commissioner, said he has since been contacted by about 20 lenders, mortgage industry specialists, attorneys, and others who have been unable to get their deeds.

He has offered to arrange a meeting with industry specialists to help streamline the process in the sheriff’s office, he said, but he has been rebuffed by city officials.

“No one has explained it to me,” Bernheim said of the delays. “What’s the problem?”