Senate Bill No. 420
(By Senators Jenkins, Plymale and Minard)
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[Introduced January 31, 2003; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section seven, article one, chapter
eleven-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to amend and reenact
section twenty, article three of said chapter, 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 section seven, article one, chapter eleven-a of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that section twenty, article three of
said chapter 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 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.