ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 40
(By Senators Jenkins and Plymale)
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[Passed April 9, 2005; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact §11A-3-20 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to a sheriff's tax on sale of real
estate erroneously assessed or nonexistent; and modifying the
method for a purchaser to recover the purchase money.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §11A-3-20 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-3-20. Refund to purchaser of payment made at sheriff's sale
where property is subject of an erroneous assessment
or is otherwise nonexistent.
If, 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 that sale is the subject of an
erroneous assessment or is otherwise nonexistent, 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 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 the error. For failure to meet this requirement, the
purchaser shall lose all benefits of his or her purchase.