Senate Bill No. 55
(By Senator Foster)
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[Introduced January 9, 2008; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §38-12-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to releases of liens by lien
creditors.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §38-12-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 12. RELEASE AND ASSIGNMENT OF LIENS.
§38-12-1. When release of lien required; requisites thereof.
(a) Every person entitled to the benefit of any lien on any
estate, real or personal, or to the money secured thereby, whether
the lien was created by conveyance, judgment, decree, lis pendens,
notice of attachment, deed of trust, contract or otherwise, shall
be required to furnish and execute an apt and proper written
release thereof free of charge to the debtor whose obligation
secured by such lien has been fully paid and satisfied, if the lien is of record in the proper county. Such release shall be executed
and furnished to the debtor or to such person as the debtor may
designate in writing within thirty ninety days after the debt has
been satisfied. Any lien creditor who fails to satisfy this
requirement as set forth herein within the ninety-day period shall
forfeit the sum of five hundred dollars to the debtor, which sum
shall be in addition to, and not in lieu of, any remedies available
to the debtor as set forth in section ten of this article.
(b) Such release of lien shall be executed by the lienholder
and acknowledged before the clerk of the county commission in whose
office the lien is recorded or before such other person authorized
to take acknowledgments of deeds. Such written release shall be
deemed is sufficient if it describe describes the lien to be
released by any words that will identify and show an intent to
discharge the same. Releases may also be made according to the
provisions of section two of this article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide a longer period
of time for lien creditors to provide releases of liens, and to
provide a penalty for failure to release a lien within the time
period.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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