CHAP. 17.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 655 of chapter 28 of
the Code of Virginia of 1887, entitled “when deed to be made to pur-
chaser; clerk to make it; what to contain; fee of clerk,’ as amended
by an act approved March 16, 1910.

Approved January 30, 1912.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
section six hundred and fifty-five of the Code of Virginia of
eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, entitled when deed to be
made to purchaser, clerk to make it, what to contain, fee of
clerk, as amended by an act approved March sixteenth, nineteen
hundred and ten, be amended and re-enacted so as to read as
follows:

§655. After the expiration of the said two years the pur-
chaser of any real estate so sold and not redeemed, his heirs or
assigns, shall obtain from the clerk of the circuit court of the
county or corporation court of the city whose officer has sold
such real estate, 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; but in no case shall a deed be made to any
such purchaser of any such real estate until after such purchaser
has given to the person in whose name the real estate so sold
stood at the time of said sale, and the person or persons to whom
said real estate so sold has been conveyed of record subsequently
to the time of said sale, or, if any of said persons be dead, then
to his or their personal representatives, heirs and devisees, and
to the trustees, mortgagees and beneficaries as shown by the
records in any deed of trust or mortgage on said real estate, or
their personal representatives, four months’ notice of his said
purchase: provided, that no notice may be given to any trustee,
mortgagee or beneficiarv, in any“deed of trust or mortgage which
has been recorded, or the lien thereof renewed, more than
twenty years prior to the date of such sale; and the person en-
titled to redeem said real estate shall have the right to redeem
the same at any time before the expiration of the said four
months, although such time extended beyond the two years first
mentioned herein: provided, further, that where said real estate
has been purchased at a tax sale, and no deed has been made to
the purchaser thereof, and the same has not been redeemed by
the former owner, the circuit or corporation court of the county
or corporation in which said land or any part thereof is situated,
may, upon the application of the purchaser, his heirs or assigns,
unless it appear by satisfactory proof that the purchaser, his
heirs or assigns, have been deprived of their right to a deed for
said land, direct the clerk of the said court to convey to said
purchaser, his heirs or assigns, the said real estate by deed with
special warranty, upon satisfactory evidence that a period of
twenty years has elapsed since said tax sale, and that at the time
of making said application for a deed the purchaser has been
in adverse possession of the said land for at least fifteen years
east of the Alleghany mountains, or ten years west of the Alle-
ghany mountains, and the taxes due thereon have been paid by
said purchaser, his heirs or assigns.

Said application shall be by motion in writing, and the court
mav reward any process or summon any party to answer said
motion it may deem proper, before making said order, and the
clerk upon making said deed shall report the same to the court,
which shall confirm the same. If the sale be of part of a tract
of land, the deed shall refer particularly to the plat and certi-
ficate of survey returned according to section six hundred and
fifty-three, and to the order of the court thereupon; and if the
sale be of an entire tract of land, it shall refer to the report made
according to the preceding section and the order thereupon. If
the sale be of a city or town lot, or of an undivided interest in
such lot, and a report be made describing the same, and such
report be ordered by the court to be recorded, the deed shall
refer to such report.

But when in the case of the sale of a city or town lot, or of
an undivided interest in such lot, there is no such report, the
clerk shall, nevertheless, execute a deed therefor to the purchaser
if he desires the same.

For every deed executed under this section the clerk shall
be entitled to one dollar, which the purchaser shall pay him on
delivery of the deed. This section shall apply as well to real
estate heretofore sold as to such real estate as may be hereafter
sold for taxes or levies; and in any case in which the chancery
court of the city of Richmond has ordered the plat and certificate
of survey theretofore made of such real estate in the said city
to be recorded in conformity to section six hundred and fifty-
three, the clerk of the said chancery court shall execute the deed
to the purchaser, his heirs or assigns.

2. Whereas, by reason of a mistake in this enrollment the
word “fifteen” was written “fifty” in the act of nineteen hun-
dred and ten, an emergency is declared now to exist, and this
act shall be enforced from its passage.