Senate Bill No. 293
(By Senators Craigo and Dittmar)
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[Introduced March 5, 1993; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section two, article three, chapter
eleven-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to notice of
delinquent real estate; and providing for notice by either
registered or certified mail.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section two, article three, chapter eleven-a of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. SALE OF LAND FOR TAXES.
§11A-3-2. Second publication of list of delinquent real estate;
notice.
On or before September tenth of each year, the sheriff shall
prepare a second list of delinquent lands, which shall include
all real estate in his county remaining delinquent as of
September first, together with a notice of sale, in form or
effect as follows:
Notice is hereby given that the following described tracts
or lots of land or undivided interests therein in the County of
________________ which are delinquent for the nonpayment of taxes
for the year (or years) 19____, will be offered for sale by the
undersigned sheriff (or collector) at public auction at the front
door of the courthouse of the county, between the hours of ten in
the morning and four in the afternoon, on the _____ day of
_________________, 19___.
Each unredeemed tract or lot, or each unredeemed part
thereof or undivided interest therein, will be sold at public
auction to the highest bidder for cash in an amount which shall
not be less than the taxes, interest and charges which shall be
due thereon to the date of sale, as set forth in the following
table:
Name of person Quantity Local Total amount of taxes,
charged of descrip- interest and charges
with taxes land tion due to date of sale
Any of the aforesaid tracts or lots, or part thereof or an
undivided interest therein, may be redeemed by the payment to the
undersigned sheriff (or collector) before sale, of the total
amount of taxes, interest and charges due thereon up to the date
of redemption.
Given under my hand this _____________ day of
_____________________, 19_____.
__________________________
Sheriff (or collector).
The sheriff shall publish the list and notice prior to the
sale date fixed in the notice as a Class III-O legal
advertisement in compliance with the provisions of article three,
chapter fifty-nine of this code, and the publication area for
such publication shall be the county. In addition to such
publication, no less than thirty days prior to the sale the
sheriff shall send a notice of such delinquency by
registered or
certified mail,
return receipt requested, to the last known
address of each person whose taxes are delinquent and to each
person having a lien on real property upon which the taxes are
due, as disclosed by a valid lien instrument duly recorded in the
office of the clerk of the county commission:
Provided, That in
a case where one owner owns more than one parcel of real property
upon which taxes are delinquent, the sheriff may, at his option,
mail separate notices to the owner and each lienholder for each
parcel, or may prepare and mail to the owner and each lienholder
a single notice which pertains to all such delinquent parcels.
If he elects to mail only one notice, that notice shall set forth
a legally sufficient description of all parcels of property on
which taxes are delinquent. In no event shall failure to receive
the mailed notice by the landowner or lienholder affect the
validity of the title of the property conveyed if it is sold
pursuant to section four, article three, chapter eleven-a of this
code.
To cover the cost of preparing and publishing the delinquent
list and mailing notice to the landowner and any lienholder, acharge of six dollars shall be added to the taxes, interest and
charges already due on each item and other charges shall be
stated in the list as the total amount due.
Any person, whose taxes were delinquent on September first,
may have his name removed from the delinquent list prior to the
time the same is delivered to the newspapers for publication and
the mailing of the above required notice by paying to the sheriff
the full amount of taxes and costs owed by such person at the
date of such redemption. In such case, the sheriff shall include
but fifty cents of the costs provided in this section in making
such redemption. Costs collected by the sheriff hereunder which
are not expended for publication and mailing shall be paid into
the general county fund.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow the sheriff the
alternative of providing notice to delinquent property taxpayers
by either registered mail or by certified mail, return receipt
requested.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.