Chap. 210.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Sections 8 and 17, as heretofore
amended, of Chapter 4 of an act entitled “an act to provide a charter for
the city of Petersburg,” approved March 11, 1875, in relation to lien on real
estate for taxes, and the collection of taxes on real estate. [S B 189]

Approved March 21, 1936

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That sections
eight and seventeen, as heretofore amended, of chapter four of an act
entitled “an act to provide a charter for the city of Petersburg,” ap-
proved March eleventh, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, be amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

CHAPTER IV

Section 8. There shall be a lien on real estate and on each and
every interest therein for the city taxes and assessment thereon from
the commencement of the year for which they were assessed. The
council may require real estate in said city delinquent for the non-
payment of taxes and assessments to be sold for the same only in the
months of June, July or August, with interest thereon at the rate of
six per centum per annum, and such percentage as they may prescribe
for non-payment, not exceeding five per centum, and the expenses of
advertising and sale; provided, that no sale of realty for delinquency
shall be made until twelve months after the said taxes may have
become due. Such real estate shall be sold and may be redeemed under
the provisions hereinafter made.

Section 17. There shall be a lien on all real estate within the cor-
porate limits and on each and every interest therein for all taxes, levies,
or charges assessed thereon or against the same or upon or against the
owner or owners thereof, under the provisions of this charter, or by
the ordinances of the city council, from the commencement of the
assessment of stich taxes, levies or charges in each year for which the
same are levied or assessed, which lien shall have priority over all
other liens except the lien for State taxes.

The payment of any such taxes, both those which have been assessed
and those which ought to have been assessed, may, in addition to the
remedies now allowed by law, be enforced by warrant, motion, action
of debt or assumpsit, bill in chancery or by attachment before justices
of the peace and courts of record within the city in the same manner,
to the same extent, and with the same rights of appeal as now exist,
or may hereafter be provided by law for the enforcement of demands
between individuals. The jurisdiction here conferred on courts of
equity shall be concurrent with the jurisdiction in action at law, and
in such equitable proceedings it shall not be necessary to allege or
prove any equitable ground of jurisdiction.

Such proceedings shall be instituted and conducted in the name of
the city of Petersburg by the city attorney, or by such other attorney
as may be designated by the council for that purpose, upon the request
of the tax collecting officers of the city or the city council. In such
proceeding the court shall have all the powers of a tax-assessing officer
or body to the end that the court may enter an order in such proceed-
ing requiring the taxpayer to pay all taxes with which he has been
properly assessed for any year or years, or to pay all taxes with which
upon a correct assessment he is chargeable for any year or years of
the three years next preceding the year in which the proceedings are
instituted. Payment of such judgment or decree shall be enforced by
appropriate process of execution or attachment in the same manner
that it could be enforced in a proceeding between individuals, and a
lien shall exist and be enforced against the real and personal prop-
erty of the defendant prior to any other lien or encumbrance thereon,
State taxes excepted.

This section shall not be construed to repeal any existing provisions
of law providing for the collection of taxes.