COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

H. B. 4533


(By Delegates Stalnaker and Davis)

(Originating in the House Committee on the Judiciary)


[February 25, 2000]


A BILL to amend and reenact sections two, five, eighteen, twenty- seven, forty-five, forty-six and forty-eight, article three, chapter eleven-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating to real property tax liens sold by sheriff for delinquent ad valorem taxes; hours of sale; forfeiture of purchaser's rights because of the expiration of the tax lien; limitation on the time to apply for quitclaim deed; publication of notice of auction; and auction without additional advertising.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections two, five, eighteen, twenty-seven, forty-five, forty-six and forty-eight, 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. COLLECTION AND ENFORCEMENT OF PROPERTY TAXES.
§11A-3-2. Second publication of list of delinquent real estate; notice.
(a) On or before the tenth day of September 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 the first day of September, together with a notice of sale, in form or effect as follows:
Notice is hereby given that tax liens for 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 nine in the morning and four in the afternoon, on the _____ day of _________________, 19____.
Tax liens on each unredeemed tract or lot, or each unredeemed part thereof or undivided interest therein, will be sold at public auction to the highest bidder 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 charged with taxes
Quantity of land
Local description
 		Total amount of taxes, interest and charges 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-0 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.
(b) In addition to such publication, no less than thirty days prior to the sale the sheriff shall send a notice of such the delinquency and the date of sale by certified mail: (1) To the last known address of each person listed in the land books whose taxes are delinquent; (2) to each person having a lien on real property upon which the taxes are due as disclosed by a statement filed with the sheriff pursuant to the provisions of section three of this article; (3) to each other person with an interest in the property or with a fiduciary relationship to a person with an interest in the property who has in writing delivered to the sheriff on a form prescribed by the tax commissioner a request for such notice of delinquency; and (4) in the case of property which includes a mineral interest but does not include an interest in the surface other than an interest for the purpose of developing the minerals, to each person who has in writing delivered to the sheriff, on a form prescribed by the tax commissioner, a request for such notice which identifies the person as an owner of an interest in the surface of real property that is included in the boundaries of such property: 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 the sheriff 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 conveyed pursuant to section twenty-seven or fifty-nine of this article.
(c) (1) To cover the cost of preparing and publishing the second delinquent list, a charge of seven dollars and fifty cents fifteen dollars shall be added to the taxes, interest and charges already due on each item and all such charges shall be stated in the list as a part of the total amount due.
(2) To cover the cost of preparing and mailing notice to the landowner, lienholder or any other person entitled thereto pursuant to this section, a charge of five dollars per addressee shall be added to the taxes, interest and charges already due on each item and all such charges shall be stated in the list as a part of the total amount due.
(d) Any person whose taxes were delinquent on the first day of September may have his or her name removed from the delinquent list prior to the time the same is delivered to the newspapers for publication by paying to the sheriff the full amount of taxes and costs owed by such the person at the date of such redemption. In such case, the sheriff shall include but three dollars 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.
§11A-3-5. Sale by sheriff; immunity; penalty; mandamus.
(a) The tax lien on each unredeemed tract or lot, or each unredeemed part thereof or undivided interest therein shall be sold by the sheriff, in the same order as set forth in the list and notice prescribed in section two of this article, at public auction to the highest bidder, between the hours of ten nine in the morning and four in the afternoon on any business working day after the fourteenth day of October and before the twenty-third day of November: Provided, That no tax lien for such unredeemed tract or lot or undivided interest therein shall be sold upon any bid or for any sum less than the total amount of taxes, interest and charges then due: Provided, however, That at any such sale, the tax lien for each unredeemed tract or lot, or undivided interest therein, shall be offered for sale and sold for the entirety of such tract or lot or undivided interest therein as the same is described and constituted as a unit or entity in the list and notice prescribed in section two of this article. If the sale shall not be completed on the day designated in the notice for the holding of such sale, it shall be continued from day to day between the same hours until disposition shall have been made of all the land. The payment for any tax lien purchased at a sale shall be made by check or money order payable to the sheriff of the county and delivered before the close of business on the day of the sale.
(b) Each sheriff is immune from liability if a loss or claim results from the sale of a tax lien conducted pursuant to the provisions of this article or from any subsequent conveyance of the property to which the lien attaches: Provided, That where a sheriff fails or refuses to sell said tax lien pursuant to the provisions of this article for reasons other than those provided by section seven of this article, the sheriff may be compelled by mandamus to sell the same upon the petition of the auditor or any taxpayer of the county in a court of competent jurisdiction.
§11A-3-18. Limitations on tax certificates.
(a) No lien upon real property evidenced by a tax certificate of sale issued by a sheriff on account of any delinquent property taxes shall may remain a lien thereon for a period longer than eighteen months after the original issuance thereof.
(b) All rights of a purchaser shall be deemed forfeited and expired and No no tax deed shall is to be issue issued on any tax sale evidenced by a tax certificate of sale where such the certificate has ceased to be a lien pursuant to the provisions of this section and application for such the tax deed, pursuant to the provisions of section twenty-seven of this article, is not pending at the time of the expiration of the limitation period provided for in this section.
(c) Whenever a lien evidenced by a tax certificate of sale has expired by reason of the provisions of this section, the county clerk shall immediately issue and record a certificate of cancellation describing the real estate included in the certificate of purchase or tax certificate and giving the date of cancellation and he the clerk shall also make proper entries in his or her records. He The clerk shall also present a copy of every such certificate of cancellation to the sheriff who shall enter the same in his the sheriff's records and such the certificate and the record thereof shall be are prima facie evidence of the cancellation of the certificate of sale and of the release of the lien of such the certificate on the lands therein described. Failure to record such the certificate of cancellation shall does not extend the lien evidenced by the certificate of sale. The sheriff and county clerk shall are not be entitled to any fees for the issuing of such the certificate of cancellation nor for the entries in their books made under the provisions of this subsection.
§11A-3-27. Deed to purchaser; record.
If the real estate described in the notice is not redeemed within the time specified therein, but in no event prior to the first day of April of the second year following the sheriff's sale, the person entitled thereto shall thereafter, but prior to the expiration of the lien evidenced by a tax certificate of sale issued by a sheriff for such real estate as provided in section eighteen of this article, make and deliver to the clerk of the county commission at any time thereafter, subject to the provisions of section eighteen of this article, a quitclaim deed for such the real estate in form or effect as follows:
This deed made this _________ day of _____________, 19___, by and between _________________, clerk of the county commission of ______________________ County, West Virginia, (or by and between _______________, a commissioner appointed by the Circuit Court of ______________ County, West Virginia) grantor, and _____________, purchaser, (or __________________, heir, devisee or assignee of _______________________, purchaser), grantee, witnesseth, that:
Whereas, In pursuance of the statutes in such case made and provided, _________________, Sheriff of ____________ County, (or ______________, deputy for ______________, Sheriff of ___________ County), (or ______________, collector of ______________ County), did, in the month of ____________, in the year 19_____, sell the tax lien(s) on real estate, hereinafter mentioned and described, for the taxes delinquent thereon for the year (or years) 19_____, and ______________, (here insert name of purchaser) for the sum of $___________, that being the amount of purchase money paid to the sheriff, did become the purchaser of the tax lien(s) on such real estate (or on ________ acres, part of the tract or land, or on an undivided _____________ interest in such real estate) which was returned delinquent in the name of ___________________; and
Whereas, The clerk of the county commission has caused the notice to redeem to be served on all persons required by law to be served therewith; and
Whereas, The tax lien(s) on the real estate so purchased has not been redeemed in the manner provided by law and the time for redemption set in such notice has expired;
Now, therefore, the grantor, for and in consideration of the premises and in pursuance of the statutes, doth grant unto ______________, grantee, his heirs and assigns forever, the real estate on which the tax lien(s) so purchased existed, situate in the county of _____________________, bounded and described as follows: ______________________________
Witness the following signature: __________________________
Clerk of the County Commission of ___________________ County.
Except when ordered to do so, as provided in section twenty-eight of this article, no clerk of the county commission shall may execute and deliver such a deed more than thirty days after the person entitled to the deed delivers the same and requests the execution thereof. Upon the clerk's determination that the deed presented substantially complies with the requirements of this section, the clerk shall execute the deed and acknowledge the same, record the deed in the clerk's office and deliver the original thereof to the purchaser.
For the execution of the deed and for all the recording required by this section, a fee of seven dollars and fifty cents and the recording expenses shall be charged, to be paid by the grantee upon delivery of the deed. The deed, when duly acknowledged or proven, shall be recorded by the clerk of the county commission in the deed book in his the clerk's office, together with assignment from the purchaser, if one was made, the notice to redeem, the return of service of such the notice, the affidavit of publication, if the notice was served by publication, and any return receipts for notices sent by certified mail.
§11A-3-45. Deputy commissioner to hold annual auction.
(a) Each tract or lot certified to the deputy commissioner pursuant to the preceding section shall be sold by the deputy commissioner at public auction at the courthouse of the county to the highest bidder between the hours of ten nine in the morning and four in the afternoon on any business working day within one hundred twenty days after the auditor has certified the lands to the deputy commissioner as required by the preceding section. The payment for any tract or lot purchased at a sale shall be made by check or money order payable to the sheriff of the county and delivered before the close of business on the day of sale. No part or interest in any tract or lot subject to such sale, or any part thereof of interest therein, that is less than the entirety of such unredeemed tract, lot or interest, as the same is described and constituted as a unit or entity in said list, shall be offered for sale or sold at such sale. If the sale shall not be completed on the first day of the sale, it shall be continued from day to day between the same hours until all the land shall have been offered for sale.
(b) A private, nonprofit, charitable corporation, incorporated in this state, which has been certified as a nonprofit corporation pursuant to the provisions of Section 501(c)(3) of the federal Internal Revenue Code, as amended, which has as its principal purpose the construction of housing or other public facilities and which notifies the deputy commissioner of an intention to bid and subsequently submits a bid that is not more than five percent lower than the highest bid submitted by any person or organization which is not a private, nonprofit, charitable corporation as defined in this subsection, shall be sold the property offered for sale by the deputy commissioner pursuant to the provisions of this section at the public auction as opposed to the highest bidder.
The nonprofit corporation referred to in this subsection does not include a business organized for profit, a labor union, a partisan political organization or an organization engaged in religious activities and it does not include any other group which does not have as its principal purpose the construction of housing or public facilities.
§11A-3-46. Publication of notice of auction.
Once a week for three consecutive weeks prior to the auction required in the preceding section, the deputy commissioner shall publish notice of the auction as a Class III-0 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.
The notice shall be in form or effect as follows:
Notice is hereby given that the following described tracts or lots of land in the County of ___________, have been certified by the Auditor of the State of West Virginia to _________________, Deputy Commissioner of Delinquent and Nonentered Lands of said County, for sale at public auction. The lands will be offered for sale by the undersigned deputy commissioner at public auction in (specify location) the courthouse of ______ County between the hours of ten nine in the morning and four in the afternoon, on the ______ day of _____________, 19___.
Each tract or lot as described below will be sold to the highest bidder. The payment for any tract or lot purchased at a sale shall be made by check or money order payable to the sheriff of the county and delivered before the close of business on the day of the sale. If any of said tracts or lots remain unsold following the auction, they will be subject to sale by the deputy commissioner without additional advertising or public auction. The deputy commissioner sale may include tracts or lots remaining unsold from a previous auction not required by law to be readvertised and described for this subsequent auction of those same tracts and lots. All sales are subject to the approval of the auditor of the state of West Virginia.
(here insert description of advertised lands to be sold)

Any of the aforesaid tracts or lots may be redeemed by any person entitled to pay the taxes thereon at any time prior to the sale by payment to the deputy commissioner of the total amount of taxes, interest and charges due thereon up to the date of redemption. Lands listed above as escheated or waste and unappropriated lands may not be redeemed.
Given under my hand this _______ day of ______________, 19_____.
_____________________________ Deputy Commissioner of Delinquent and Nonentered Lands of _____________________ County.
The description of lands required in the notice shall be in the same form as the list certifying said lands to the deputy commissioner for sale. If the deputy commissioner is required to auction lands certified to him in any previous years, pursuant to section forty-eight of this article, he shall include such lands in the notice auction without further advertisement, with reference to the year of certification and the item number of the tract or interest.
To cover the cost of preparing and publishing the notice, a charge of twenty-five thirty dollars shall be added to the taxes, interest and charges due on the delinquent and nonentered property.
§11A-3-48. Unsold lands subject to sale without auction or additional advertising.

If any of the lands which have been offered for sale at the public auction provided in section forty-five of this article shall remain unsold following such auction, or if the auditor refuses to approve the sale pursuant to section fifty-one of this article, the deputy commissioner may sell such lands at any time subsequent to such auction, without any further public auction or additional advertising of such land, to any party willing to purchase such property. The price of such property shall be as agreed upon by the deputy commissioner and purchaser, subject to approval by the auditor as provided in section fifty-one of this article.: Provided, That any of such unsold lands, which remain unsold at the time the deputy commissioner publishes notice of subsequent annual auctions, shall be included in such notice and offered for sale at such auction: Provided, however, That in no event shall the deputy commissioner be required to offer a tract, lot or interest for sale at more than three consecutive annual auctions.