Chap. 635.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 666 of the code of Virginia,
in relation to delinquent lands purchased in the name of auditor.

Approved March 5, 1894.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
six hundred and sixty-six of the code be amended and re-enacted so
as to read as follows:

§ 666. When and how lands purchased in the name of auditor and
unredeemed to be sold.—Where 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 purchase, any person
may buy it by paying to the clerk of the county or corporation court
of the county or corporation in which such real estate is situated
the amount for which the sale to the commonwealth was made, to-
gether with such additional sums as would have accrued from taxes
and levies 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 ten per centum from the day of sale, and on
the additional sums from the fifteenth day of December, in the year
in which the same would have accrued. The purchaser 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 county or city, then by some person appointed by such court
for that purpose, specifying the metes and bounds of the land so
sold to him, 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 sees some ob-
jection 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 he made to said
report. For every deed executed under thie section the clerk shall
be entitled to one dollar, which the purchaser shall pay him 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 com-
monwealth, 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 ten 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 Febru-
ary, 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.