Chap. 367.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 4 of chapter 38
of Code of 1873, as amended by an act approved, April 28, 1874,
and to amend and re-enact sections 15, 28 and 30 of said chapter 38
of the Code of 1873, in relation to forfeited and delinquent lands.

Approved March 3, 1886.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia; That
section four, of chapter thirty-eight, of the Code of eighteen
hundred and seventy-three, as amended and re-enacted by an
act of assembly, approved April twenty-eighth, eighteen hun-
dred and seventy-four, entitled an act to amend and re-enact
sections one, two, four, five, seven, thirty-one and thirty-four,
and to repeal section thirty-six, of chapter thirty-eight, of the
Code of eighteen hundred and seventy-three, and to provide
additional sections for said chapter in relation to forfeited and
delinquent lands, and sections fifteen, twenty-eight and thirty,
of said chapter thirty- eight, of the Code of eighteen hundred
and seventy-three, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as
follows:

§ 4. There shall be a lien upon all real estate for the taxes
assessed, or county levies laid thereon, and interest upon such
taxes and levies, at the rate of six per centum per annum, from
the fifteenth day of December, in the year in which the same
may have been assessed or levied for the period of five years,
or until payment thereof. The auditor of public accounts shall
keep a record of all real estate, which since the tenth day of
March, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, shall have been, or
hereafter shall be, returned delinquent for non-payment of taxes
or county levies. Until asale thereof, as hereinafter mentioned,
any person may, upon a certificate of the said auditor, pay into
the treasury the taxes on such reabestate, with interest thereon
as aforesaid; and until such sale the county levy, as well as the
taxes, upon ‘such real estate, and interest thereon, may be paid
to the clerk of the court of the county or corporation wherein
such real estate is located, in the manner now and hereinafter
provided: provided, however, that the payment of the taxes
upon such real estate, without the payment of the county levy
thereon, shall in no manner affect the lien for such levies, nor
in any manner release or discharge the same. For every such
certificate the person obtaining the same shall pay the auditor
a fee of fifty cents, and a like fee to the clerk where payment
is made to him; and such clerk shall annually transmit to the
auditor of public accounts, a list of all real estate, the taxes and
levies whereon have been paid to him, and the auditor of pub-
lic accounts, shall properly credit the same upon the delinquent
lists in his office.

§ 15. The said list, with a certificate of the said oath attached
thereto, shall be returned to the court of the county or corpo-
ration (whose officers may have made the sales) at the first or
second term next after the completion of the said sales. Ifthe
court see no cause to doubt the correctness of the list, it shall
order a copy thereof to be certified to the auditor of public
accounts, and the original to be recorded in a well-bound book,
properly indexed, to be preserved in his office.

§ 28. When any real estate is offered for sale as aforesaid by
the treasurer, and no person present bids the amount to be
satisfied from the sale thereof, the treasurer shall purchase the
same on behalf of the commonwealth for the taxes and levies
due thereon, and the interest on the same, and its proportionate
part of the expenses of advertising, unless such tract or lot has
heretofore been purchased in by the commonwealth, in which
case the officer making the sale shall sell for such prices as may
be bid therefor. A list of the real estate so purchased by the
commonwealth, shall be made out by the treasurer, and attached
thereto a list of the lands sold of which the commonwealth has
heretofore been the purchaser, and the price obtained therefor,
and the name of the purchaser. After it shall have been veri-
fied by him, on oath, the court of his county or corporation
shall direct its clerk to transmit a copy thereof to the auditor of
public accounts, and to record the original in a well bound book,
properly indexed, to be preserved in his office; and for such
record, and the record required by the fifteenth section, said
clerk shall receive the same compensation now provided by law
for recording delinquent lands; such compensation to be paid
equally out of the state and county treasuries. Upon receiving
the said lists, the auditor shall credit the treasurer with the
amounts for which the said real estate may have been purchased
or sold, but without commissions. The treasurer, on or before
the first day of sale of delinquent lands, required under this
act, is fully authorized and empowered, upon proper evidence
adduced before him, to correct any'errors that may appear in
the lists of delinquent or purchased lands, delivered him under
the fifth and thirty-first sections of this chapter, by allowing to
the claimant or owner of such lands credit for any payment of
taxes made by him to the proper officer for the year or years
for which said lands were returned delinquent, or for taxes paid
since said time; and where any sale of lands heretofore made,
and any person other than the commonwealth shall have be-
come the purchaser thereof, upon the production to said treasu-
rer of the receipts, or other evidence of the payment by the
purchaser to the proper officer of the purchase money, the
rights of the purchaser thereof, upon the payment of all the
taxes subsequently accrued thereon, shall be protected as if all
the requirements of the law had been fully complied with. A
correct and condensed statement of all errors corrected by him
under this section shall be returned to the court, as provided
for by the fifteenth section; and the court, if satisfied of the
correctness of such statement, shall certify the same to the
auditor.

§ 30. The previous owner of any real estate so purchased for
the commonwealth, his heirs or assigns, or any person having
a right to charge such real estate for a debt, may, until a fur-
ther sale thereof, as hereinafter mentioned, redeem the same
by obtaining from the said auditor such certificate, and paying
such fee therefor as is mentioned in the fourth section, and by
paying into the treasury the amount for which such real estate
was so purchased for taxes, with such additional sums as would
have accrued for taxes thereon if the same had not been pur-
chased for the commonwealth, and interest at the rate of ten
per centum per annum on the former amount from the date of
the purchase, and for the additional sums from the fifteenth
day of December in the year in which the same would have so
accrued; or such payment may be made to the clerk of the
court of the county or corporation wherein such real estate is
located, and by paying to the clerk of the court of such county
the amount for which such real estate was so purchased for
county levy, with such additional sums as would have accrued
‘for levies thereon, if the same had not been purchased for the
commonwealth, and interest thereon as above specified; and
the said clerk shall endorse the fact of such payment upon the
book required to be kept by the twenty-eighth section, oppo-
site the entry of said tract of land, and he shall account for the
amount so collected in the manner now prescribed as to taxes
and levies upon delinquent real estate collected by him. When
real estate so purchased is so redeemed, the said auditor and
clerk shall certify the fact to the proper commissioner of the
revenue.

2. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are
hereby repealed. |

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