No. 014 · · Courts
The sheriff tells Council that deed delays are resolved and sales are going “full blast”
At a City Council budget hearing on April 28, 2026, presenting a $19.3 million budget request, Sheriff Bilal testified that the deed-processing problems that began in 2023 — winning bidders waiting a year or more for deeds to properties they had paid for — had been fixed, and that sheriff sales were going “full blast.”
Of buyers who said otherwise, she told Councilmember Cindy Bass: “If you believe them that run to the newspaper — ‘Oh I ain’t got my deed’ — well they never tell them they didn’t pay the invoice.”
Fifteen days later, a Common Pleas Court judge ordered her to account for every sheriff sale of her tenure.
April 28 — testimony to City Council
Sheriff Bilal told Council at a budget hearing that deed delays after property auctions had been resolved and that sheriff sales were going “full blast.”
The Philadelphia InquirerMay 13 — Court of Common Pleas
Fifteen days later, Judge Paula Patrick ordered Bilal to account for every sheriff sale since January 2020 and to show why a special master should not be brought in.
The Philadelphia Inquirer