Evening star., 1902-09-03
TAX SALES AND DEEDS
REPORT ON REQUEST
OF REAL ESTATE EXCHANGE.
Declares Law Does Not Require Cita-
ton of Sales, Redeemable or IRE
deemable, on Certificates.

Mr.. H. II. Darneille, the assessor of the
District, has submitted a report to the
Commissioners on the application of the
| Washington real estate exchange for a re-
consideration of its requests relative to tax
sales, tax deeds and the advertisement of
delinquent property. The requests made by
| the exchange, through its secretary, John
E. Mitchell, were as follows:
That tax sales. whether redeemable or
irredeemable, be reported on tax certifi-
Gates.
That prior to the execution of deeds
for property sold for taxes notice of the
intention to issue such a deed be sent to
the owners of the property affected.
That property be advertised for sale for
taxes in the name of the owner of record"
In asking for a reconsideration of the
assessors adverse rulings on these requests,
Mr.. Mitchell said:
In the assessors reply he asserts that 1t
would be difficult and take up too much
time to enter the irredeemable tax sales
upon the certificates. and yet, he adds, in-
formation concerning tax sales which are
beyond redemption can be furnished at any
time. Would not the convenience of the
public be sufficient to warrant the entry at
the time of examinations
Again Referred.
The Commissioners again referred the
matter to the assessor. and he has now
reported to them, saying that the law does
not require the citation of any sales, re-
deemable rredeemable, on tax certift-
Gates. and quoting a part of the act OF
Congress of May Is, 1892 to substantiate
that view. He states further that tax GER
tificates are certified statements of taxes
due and unpaid, and holds that an ire
deemabIe sale Is not tax due and unpaid,
for so far the District is concerned the
S91 iS and
redemption of the property which the sale
represents cannot be effected by payment
to the District. For this reason the asses
Sor is of the opinion that the reporting of
lrredeemable sales on tax certificates would
De at variance with the character of such
certificates. Continuing, Mr.. Darneflle
says:
Full information concerning tax sales
is of record in the office of the recorder of
deeds. as required by law, which record is
consulted by title companies and others
having use for such information. The title
companies to which al least 10 per cent of
the tax certificates are issued have signi-
ned their satisfaction with the custom of
not reporting irredeemable tax sales.
Although there is no requirement that
redeemable sales should be cited on tax
certificates, this is done for the accommo-
dation of the public, such citation is
comparatively an easy matter In citing
irredeemable sales. however, it would be
necessary in the majority of cases to trace
the area of the property back for MANY
years. in order to ascertain whether there
are outstanding sales on the ground out
or winch 1t originally came. When it was
the practice to report irredeemable sales
this work took at least One-third of the
time expended in preparing such certif-
Gates, and was found to be cumbersome
and of so little utility that it was discon-
tinued by order of the Commissioners
1t is self-evident that the furnishing of
this information from the records of the
office in the isolated cases in which it is
desired would take vastly less time than
to undertake to make these searches in the
case of every certificate issued"
The Second Request.
With regard to the second request As
SCISSOR Darneille says it is the policy of his
office to send notice to owners before issu-
ing tax deeds against their property when
ever it is possible to locate them He SAYS
the practice was inaugurated some time
ago. and every available means is used to
secure the addresses of owners of such
property for the purpose of sending out no.
persons living outside of the District whose
names are not in the directory and whose
whereabouts are not obtainable. These the
assessor says he cannot reach.
Mr. Darnellle reports on the third request
that II is and has been the practice to ad-
Vertlse property for sale for taxes in the
name of the owner of record, except where
property which is transferred after the be-
ginning of the tax year Is carried on the
iedSefS both In the name Of the owner Of
record and the owner Immediately preced-
OF the assessor has been approved by the
Commissioners