ENGROSSED
Senate Bill No. 40
(By Senators Jenkins and Plymale)
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[Introduced February 9, 2005; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL 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,
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.