Chap. 179.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 666 of the code of Virginia,
as amended and re-enacted by an act approved March 5, 1894, in relation to
delinquent lands purchased in the name of the auditor.

Approved January 29, 1896.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
six» hundred and sixty-six of the code of Virginia, as amended by
the acts of eighteen hundred and ninety-three and eighteen hundred
and ninety-four, approved March fifth, eighteen hundred and ninety-
four, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

§ 666. When and how lands purchased in the name of the auditor
and unredeemed to be sold.— When real estate so purchased in the
name of the auditor is not redeemed by the previous owner, his heirs
or assigns, or some person having the right to charge the same with
a debt, within two years from the date of such purchese, any person
desiring to purchase it shall file an application with the clerk of the
county or corporation court wherein such real estate is situated for
the purchase of such real estate for the amount for which the
sale to the commonwealth was made, together with such addi-
tional sums as would have accrued from taxes and levies and in-
terest, if such real estate had not been so purchased by the com-
monwealth, with interest on the amount for which said sale was
made at the rate of six per centum per annum from the day of sale,
and in the additional sums from the fifteenth day of December in the year
m which the same .would have accrued; and the clerk shall there-
upon make out two copies of such application and deliver them
to the sheriff of his county, or sergeant of his corporation, and the
sheriff or sergeant shall serve one of said copies on the person in
whose name said real estate stood at the date of the sale of it to the
commonwealth, or if said person be dead, then on his personal rep-
resentative, and return the other copy to the said clerk of the county
or corporation court with his return thereon endorsed; and if for
any reason he cannot serve it on such person, his return shall so
show. In case the return of the sheriff or sergeant shows that there
18 no service of said copy, then the clerk of the county or corporation
court shall insert a copy of such application in a newspaper pub-
lished in the county wherein such real estate is situated, or if there
be no newspaper published in his county or corporation, then in the
nearest newspaper, for four successive weeks. If the person in whose
name said real estate was listed when sold to the commonwealth, or
other person who had the right to redeem before tt was sold, does not ap-
pear within thirty days after such copy has been served on him, or
the completion of the published notice, and redeem said real estate
from the clerk of the county or corporation court by paying all the
taxes, penalties and costs therewith connected, as well as all fees
and costs attending the proceedings, then the person who made such
application shall, at his expense, have a report made to the county
or corporation court of the county or corporation in which said real
estate is situated by the surveyor of such county or city, or where
there is no surveyor of such city or county, then by some person ap-
pointed by such court for that purpose, specifying the metes and
bounds of the land he proposes to buy, the names of the owners of
the adjoining tracts or lots, and giving such further description of
the land as will identify the same; and the county or corporation
court, unless it has some objection to such report, shall order the
same to be recorded. ©

After such report shall have been recorded the purchaser shall
obtain from the clerk of the county or corporation court of: the
county or city in which said real estate is situated a deed conveying
the same, in which shall be set forth all the circumstances appearing
in the clerk’s office in relation to the sale, and reference be made to
said report. In no case shall the commonwealth be liable for any
costs incurred under any of the provisions of this. act.

For every deed executed under this section the clerk shall be en-
titled to one dollar, which the purchaser shall pay on the delivery
of the deed.

If the clerk refuse to execute such deed the court may compel
him to do so upon the petition of the purchaser.

Every such deed shall be with covenants of special warranty.

If no such deed be made under this chapter within one year after
the purchase of the land by the party entitled to the deed, the owner
of the land, at the time it was sold for taxes and county levies and
bought by the commonwealth, his heirs or assigns, may, after such
year and before such deed is made, redeem the land by paying to
the purchaser the amount paid therefor by him, with such taxes and
levies as he may have paid thereon since his purchase, with interest
at six per centum, upon such payments from the date they were
respectively made. ,

The provisions of section six hundred and sixty-one of the code
shall apply to deeds made under authority of this section, and the
provisions of section six hundred and fifty-two shall apply to real
estate sold under authority of this section.

No real estate which was purchased by the commonwealth prior
to the first day of February, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, at
sale of lands for taxes and levies delinquent thereon, shall be sold
under the provisions of this act until the expiration of two years
from that date.

2. This act shall be in force from its passage.