CHAPTER 425

An Act to amend and reenact § 25, as amended, and 8§ 26 through 35 of
Chapter 217 of the Acts-of Assembly of 1918, approved March 14,
1918, which provided a new charter for the city of Clifton Forge;
the sections relating to taxation and the sale and redemption of land
sold for taxes.

[S 315]

Approved April 1, 1952

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That § 25, as amended, and §§ 26 through 35 of Chapter 217 of the
Acts of Assembly of 1918, approved March 14, 1918, be amended and
reenacted as follows:

§ 25. For the execution of its powers and duties the city council
may * except as otherwise provided by the Constitution or general laws
of the State, raise taxes annually, by assessment in said city, on all subjects
taxable by * the State, or which under the Virginia Code and the laws of
Virginia the city of Clifton Forge or its council is authorized to tax, such
sums of money as they shall deem necessary to defray the expense of the
city and to pay the interest on the debt of said city, in such manner as
they shall deem expedient (in accordance with the laws of this State and
the United States) ; provided, that no tax upon real and personal property
in said city shall exceed * three dollars * upon the one hundred dollars
assessed value thereof, * with the right in the city council to exceed the
said sum of three dollars to the extent of any additional amount now or
hereafter provided for under any section or sections of the Code of Virginia,
and provided also that for ten years from the first day of January, nine-
teen hundred and * fifty-two, if the council deem it expedient, * 1t may
provide by resolution passed by three-fifths of the entire council that no
corporation tax shall be levied upon the machinery, implements, money
and capital of any new manufacturing establishment actually in use for
manufacturing purposes, within the said city, for the term of five years
or less; provided, that the applicants for such exemption of corporation
taxes shall enter into satisfactory written agreement with the city council
to operate their respective manufacturing plants during the term of exemp-
tion. The provisions of this section are not intended to apply to any
manufacturing plant that has been erected, but is intended to be used
only to encourage the building of new manufacturing plants in the city.

8 26. There shall be a lien on all real estate and each and every
interest therein for the city taxes * assessed thereon from the commence-
ment of the year for which they * are assessed. And the city council may,
by ordinance, allow and require said taxes to be paid in two equal install-
ments at such times and with a penalty not in excess of ten per cent, as
said council may designate. The council may require such real estate in
the city, delinquent for the nonpayment of taxes, * to be sold for said
taxes *, with interest thereon * at the rate of six per centum per annum,
and ten per centum of the amount of * tax to cover costs and charges. *
Such real estate shall be sold and may be redeemed under the provisions
hereinafter made.

8 27. It shall be the duty of the treasurer of the city to make out
and deliver to the council at their regular meeting in July in each year
following the passage of this Act, a list of all real estate whereupon
delinquent taxes or assessments are due and unpaid for the previous year,
and thereupon the treasurer of the city, under * direction of the city
council, and when so ordered by it, shall sell said real estate, and shall
cause a notice of the time and place of such sale to be published in a news-
paper published in said city, for at least thirty days, or four successive
issues of said paper or papers, previous to the day of the sale, and he
shall cause to be published, at the same time and for the same length of
time, a list of the several parcels of real estate delinquent for the non-
payment of the assessments due and the amount of the tax or assessment
due on each parcel.

§ 28. If such tax or assessment and the six per centum interest and
ten per centum cost and charges aforesaid be not paid previous to the
day for which * sale is advertised, or on some day immediately thereafter
to which said sale may be adjourned, the treasurer shall proceed to make
sale accordingly of said parcels of real estate, or so much thereof as shall
be necessary to satisfy the taxes, interest and charges aforesaid, to the
highest bidder, and the sale may be adjourned from day to day until it
shall be completed. On such sale the treasurer shall execute to the pur-
chaser a certificate of sale, in which the property purchased shall be
described and the aggregate amount of taxes or assessments, with * in-
terest and cost specified; but the treasurer shall not for himself, whether
directly or indirectly, purchase any real estate so sold.

§ 29. If at any such sale no bids * be made * for any such parcel of
land, or such bids shall not be equal to the tax or assessments, with in-
terest and costs thereon, * the same may be bid in and purchased by the
treasurer for the city. On such sale, the treasurer shall execute to the
city a certificate of sale, in which the property purchased shall be described
and the aggregate amount of tax or assessments, with interest and cost
specified, and shall deposit such certificates with the clerk of the council
of the city.

§ 30. The treasurer shall within thirty days after the sales are com-
pleted, make a report of said sales showing parcel of land sold, the date
of sale, the name of the purchaser, and the amount of the purchase money
for each lot; this report shall within the time aforesaid be filed with
the clerk of the council and be by him recorded in a book for the purpose.

§ 31. The owner of any real estate so sold, his heirs or assigns, or
any person having * a right to charge such real estate for a debt, or *
any person having interest in said real estate by way of reversion, re-
mainder or otherwise, may redeem the same by paying to the purchaser,
his heirs or assigns, within two years from the sale thereof, the * amount *
for which the same was sold, and such additional taxes thereon as may
have been paid by the purchaser, his heirs or assigns, with interest * on
the purchase money and taxes at the rate of six per centum per annum
from the time the same may have been paid, or, if purchased by the city
with such additional sums as will have accrued for taxes thereon, if the
same had not been purchased * for the city or by it, with interest on the
said purchase money, and taxes, at the rate of ten per centum per annum
from the time that the same may have been so paid, or the same may be
paid within the said two years to the * city treasurer in any case in which
the purchaser, his heirs or assigns, may refuse to receive the same, or may
not reside or cannot be found in the city of Clifton Forge.

§ 32. Any infant, insane person, or person * in prison, whose real
estate may have been so sold, or his heirs, may redeem the same by paying
to the purchaser, his heirs or assigns, within two years * after the re-
moval of their disability the amount for which the same was so sold, with
the * necessary charges incurred by the purchaser, his heirs or assigns *
and the appraised value of any improvement that may have been made
thereon, with interest on * said items at the rate of six per centum per
annum from the time * the same may have been made. Upon such pay-
ment * within two years after the removal of such disability, the pur-
chaser, his heirs or assigns, shall, at the cost of the original owner, his
heirs or assigns, convey to him or them by deed with special warranty of
title the real estate so sold.

§ 33. If any real estate so sold be not redeemed within the time
allowed for redemption, the purchaser of such real estate, or his assigns,
may thereupon petition the mayor and council that the property shall be
conveyed to him, and thereupon, after due notice to the party or parties,
for whose delinquent taxes said real estate was sold, and similar notice to
the owner as shown by the records of the clerk’s office of the circuit court
of said city, either by personal service, or in the event personal service
cannot be had by reason of nonresidence or disability of any kind, by
publication for four successive weeks in some newspaper published in the
city of Clifton Forge, at the expense of the applicant, the said council shall
determine whether or not the requirement as to * assessment, the sale,
the purchase, and the period of redemption shall have been complied
with; and if upon such inquiry it be ascertained that the same has been
regularly complied with, and that the purchaser or his assigns is entitled
to a conveyance of said real estate, the council shall direct the same to
be conveyed by the clerk of the council of the city. Where the purchaser
has assigned the benefit of his purchase, the deed may be made with his
consent evidenced by his joining therein, or by writing annexed thereto
be executed to his assignee. And if the purchaser shall have died, his
heirs or assigns may move the council to order the clerk of the council of
the city to execute a deed conveying the property to such heirs or assigns;
such inquiry shall be deemed conclusive as to regularity of all proceedings
connected therewith, but nothing contained in this section shall apply to
the real estate purchased by the city at delinquent tax sales.

§ 34. * When the purchaser of any real estate, sold for taxes, his heirs
or assigns, shall have obtained a deed therefor, and within sixty days
from the date of such deed shall have caused the same to be recorded, such
estate shall stand vested in the grantee in such deed as was vested in the
party assessed with the taxes (on account whereof the sale was made)
at the commencement of the year for which the said taxes were assessed;
subject to defeat only by proof that the taxes for which said real estate
was sold were not chargeable thereon, or that the taxes properly charge-
able on such real estate have been paid. And vf it be alleged that the tazes,
for the nonpayment of which sale was made were not in arrears, the party
making such allegation must establish the truth thereof by proving that
the taxes were paid; but nothing in this section shall be construed to
affect or impair the lien of the city on the real estate and on each and every
interest therein, or to affect, limit, or impair the right of the city, when
it becomes a purchaser of real estate under § 29 of this chapter.

§ 35. * In case that any real estate bought by or for the city as here-
inbefore provided, shall not be redeemed within the time specified, the clerk
of the council shall, within sixty days after the expiration of two years
from the sale, cause to be recorded in the clerk’s office of the Circuit Court
of the city of Clifton Forge, Virginia, a certificate of sale with his oath
that the same has not been redeemed, and thereupon the said city or its
assignees, shall acquire an absolute title in fee to such real estate and every
interest therein, for life, in reversion, in remainder and otherwise, subject
to be defeated only by proof that the taxes for which said real cstate was
sold were not properly chargeable thereon, or that the taxes properly
chargeable thereon had been paid at the time of the execution of such
certificate. The said certificate shall be recorded in the said clerk’s office
in a record book, known as “deed book, recording conveyances to city of
lands sold for delinquent taxes,” for recording which certificate the clerk
shall be entitled to a fee of twenty-five cents, payable, out of the city
treasury. The city council may impose penalties upon its officers for their
fatlure to comply with the requirements of this section. The said cerittfi-
cate, or the record thereof, or a certified copy thereof, shall, in all courts
and other places, be evidence of the facts therein stated; provided, how-
ever, that the failure to obtain or record such certificate shall not in-
validate the lien of the city for all taxes assessed against such real estate,
but the city may, at any time, elect to enforce its lien for taxes in a court
of equity and release its rights as purchaser or to become a purchaser of
such real estate.