H. B. 4293
(By Delegate Stalnaker)
[Introduced January 31, 2006; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §11A-3-19 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to requiring purchasers of real
estate subject to tax liens to pay for notices to redeem.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §11A-3-19 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. SALE OF TAX LIENS AND NONENTERED, ESCHEATED AND WASTE
AND UNAPPROPRIATED LANDS.
§11A-3-19. What purchaser must do before he can secure deed.
(a) At any time after the thirty-first day of October of
the year following the sheriff's sale, and on or before the
thirty-first day of December of the same year, the purchaser, his
or her heirs or assigns, in order to secure a deed for the real
estate subject to the tax lien or liens purchased, shall: (1)
Prepare a list of those to be served with notice to redeem and request the clerk to prepare and serve the notice as provided in
sections twenty-one and twenty-two of this article; (2) provide the
clerk with a list of any additional expenses incurred after the
first day of January of the year following the sheriff's sale for
the preparation of the list of those to be served with notice to
redeem including proof of the additional expenses in the form of
receipts or other evidence of reasonable legal expenses incurred
for the services of any attorney who has performed an examination
of the title to the real estate and rendered a written opinion and
certification thereon; (3) deposit,
or offer to deposit, with the
clerk a sum sufficient to cover the costs of preparing and serving
the each and every notice; and (4) present the purchaser's
certificate of sale, or order of the county commission where the
certificate has been lost or wrongfully withheld from the owner, to
the clerk of the county commission. For failure to meet these
requirements, the purchaser shall lose all the benefits of his or
her purchase.
(b) If the person requesting preparation and service of the
notice is an assignee of the purchaser, he or she shall, at the
time of the request, file with the clerk a written assignment to
him or her of the purchaser's rights, executed, acknowledged and
certified in the manner required to make a valid deed.
(c) Whenever any certificate given by the sheriff for a tax
lien on any land, or interest in the land sold for delinquent taxes, or any assignment of the lien is lost or wrongfully withheld
from the rightful owner of the land and the land or interest has
not been redeemed, the county commission may receive evidence of
the loss or wrongful detention and, upon satisfactory proof of that
fact, may cause a certificate of the proof and finding, properly
attested by the county clerk under the seal of the county, to be
delivered to the rightful claimant, and a record of the certificate
shall be duly made by the county clerk in the recorded proceedings
of the commission.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to end the practice of
county clerks offices paying for tax lien real estate purchasers'
required notices to redeem, by requiring purchasers of real estate
subject to tax liens to pay for each and every notice to redeem.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.