Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1896-07-02
ALEXANDRIA VA. THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 9 1896
DELINQUENT LANDS.

The new law enacted by the last legls-
lature with reference to sale of lands
for delinquent taxes materially changes
methods hitherto in vogue, and may
cause trouble to many land owners If
they fail to take notice of the change.
Large quantities of land in some of the
counties are involved.
The law has been that when the land
is sold for delinquent taxes and the
State becomes the purchaser, the owner
has two years in which to redeem it,
but the practice has been that even at
the expiration of the two years, an in
definite time was allowed the holder to
make good the delinquent taxes. Now,
however, by the recent enactment of
the Legislature, any person can buy a
piece of delinquent property at the end
of the two years specified. Following
are the salient points in the law as
amended
When real estate purchased in the
name of the auditor is not redeemed
within two years of the date of such
purchase. any person desiring to pur-
chase it shall file an application with
the clerk of the county or corporation
court wherein such real estate is situat-
ed for the purchase of such real estate
for the amount for which the sale to
the Commonwealth was made, together
with such additional sum as would
ha, accrued from taxes and levies and
interest, if such real estate had not
been so purchased by the common
wealth, with interest on the amount
for which the said sale was made at the
rate of six per cent. per annum from
the day of sale, and on the additional
sums from the fifteenth day of Decem-
Der in the year in which the
same would have accrued; and the
clerk shall thereupon make out two
copies of the application and deliver
them to the sheriff of his county, or
sergeant of his corporation, and the
sergeant shall serve one of them on the
person in whose name said real estate
stood at the date of the sale to the COM
monwealth, or if such person be dead,
then on his personal representative, and
return the other copy to the said clerk
of the county or corporation court with
his return thereon endorsed, and if for
any reason he cannot serve it on such
person his return shall so show. 10
case there is no service of said copy,
the clerk shall advertise it for four sue
cessive weeks. If the person in whose
name the property listed does not ap-
pear within 80 days after such copy has
been served or the advertisement in the
paper completed, and redeem such real
estate, with all costs thereto attached,
then the person who made the applica.
ton, shall have report made by the
surveyor, at his own expense, specify
ing the metes and boundaries of the
land, etc., and the court, unless there
be some objection, shall order the same
to be recorded.
Then the purchaser can obtain from
the clerk a deed conveying the
property. If no such deed be made
one year after such purchase, the origi-
nal owners may redeem the land by
paying to the purchaser the amount
paid therefore by him. No real estate
which was purchased by the common
wealth prior to the first day of Febru-
ary, 1896, shall be sold under the pro-
visions OF this act until the expiration
of two years from that date.