§11A-3-6. Purchase by sheriff, State Auditor, deputy commissioner and clerk of county commission prohibited; coowner free to purchase at tax sale.
(a) A sheriff, clerk of the county commission or circuit court, assessor, State Auditor, or deputy or assistant of any of them, shall not directly or indirectly become the purchaser, or be interested in the purchase, of any tax lien on any real estate at the tax sale or receive any tax deed conveying the real estate. Any officer purchasing a tax lien shall forfeit $1,000 for each offense. The sale of a tax lien on any real estate, or the conveyance of the real estate by tax deed, to one of the officers named in this section is voidable, at the instance of any person having the right to redeem, until the real estate reaches the hands of a bona fide purchaser.

(b) Any coowner, except a coparcener, in the absence of satisfactory proof of a fiduciary relationship, is entitled to acquire by tax purchase for his or her own account the tax lien on the interest of any, or all, of his or her coowners in any real estate, and to receive a tax deed conveying the interest without being required to hold the tax lien or interest or interests under any constructive trust. There shall be a prima facie presumption against the existence of any constructive trust.

Note: WV Code updated with legislation passed through the 2012 1st Special Session