Senate Bill No. 237
(By Senators Jenkins, Ross and Plymale)
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[Introduced January 20, 2004; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §11A-1-7 of the code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended; and to amend and reenact §11A-3-20 of said
code, all relating to real and personal property taxes;
sheriff's tax on sale of real estate erroneously assessed or
nonexistent; modifying the method for a purchaser to recover
the purchase money; limiting the period of time for demanding
a refund; and requiring that delinquent personal property
taxes, just as real estate taxes, must be paid before current
taxes may be paid.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §11A-1-7 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that §11A-3-20 of said code be
amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. ACCRUAL AND COLLECTION OF TAXES.
§11A-1-7. No collection of current taxes until delinquent taxes are paid.
The sheriff, in preparing his
or her tax receipts for any
current year shall examine and compare them with the delinquent
list for the preceding year in his
or her hands, and if any tract
or personal property is found to be delinquent for the preceding
year,
he or she shall note the fact on his
or her current receipts
and shall decline to receive current taxes on any land
or personal
property where it appears to his
or her office that a prior year's
taxes are unpaid. Acceptance of current taxes through oversight
shall not relieve the owner of any land
or personal property, of
the liability to pay prior taxes and penalties imposed for
nonpayment.
ARTICLE 3. SALE OF TAX LIENS AND NONENTERED, ESCHEATED AND WASTE
AND UNAPPROPRIATED LANDS.
§11A-3-20. Refund to purchaser of payment made at sheriff's sale
where property is subject of an erroneous assessment
or is otherwise nonexistent.
If,
after by the thirty-first day of December of the year
following payment of the amount bid at a sheriff's sale, the
purchaser discovers that the lien purchased at
such that sale is
the subject of an erroneous assessment or is otherwise nonexistent,
such the purchaser shall submit the
abstract or certificate of an
attorney-at-law that the property is the subject of an erroneous
assessment or is otherwise nonexistent. Upon receipt
thereof, of the abstract or certificate the sheriff shall cause the moneys so
paid to be refunded. Upon refund, the sheriff shall inform the
assessor of the erroneous assessment for the purpose of having the
assessor correct
said the error.
For failure to meet this
requirement, the purchaser shall lose all benefits of his or her
purchase.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to limit the time in which
a purchaser of erroneously assessed or nonexistent real estate at
a sheriff's tax sale may claim a refund, and to require that
delinquent personal property taxes must be paid before payment of
current personal property taxes will be accepted.
Strike-throughs indicate language which would be stricken
under the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that
would be added.