§ 10-125. Tax sales; redemptions; deeds; records.

(a)

If the purchase money for any piece of land sold at tax sale is more than the taxes, interests, penalties and costs of sale due thereon, the purchaser shall only pay on the day of sale the amount of taxes, interest, penalties and costs of sales. The residue shall be payable, after the period of redemption has expired, to the Director of Finance, upon the execution by him to the purchaser, or his assignee, of a deed for the piece of land. Possession of the property sold shall not be taken by the purchaser until the execution and recording of the deed.

(b)

Upon payment of the taxes, interest, penalties and costs of sale, which shall be made on the day of sale, the Director of Finance shall deliver to the purchaser a certificate of sale, setting forth all the facts of the sale. The certificate shall be assignable, and upon surrender of the certificate, its lawful holder shall receive from the Director, in case such sale is set aside by the Court, immediate return of his purchase money. In case such sale is ratified, and the property not redeemed by its owner or someone in privity with him, within two (2) years from the first day of the sale at which the same was sold, to wit, the second Monday of May, by payment to the Director of Finance, for the use of the legal holder of the certificate of the amount of money receipted for in the certificate, and any taxes subsequently assessed on the land and paid by the purchaser, with interest thereon, at the rate of twenty percent (20%) per annum from the second Monday in May, the Director, upon the payment of the balance of the purchase money in full, shall execute a deed in fee simple of such property to the legal holder of the certificate. The deed shall be held to be prima facie evidence of a good title, in fee simple to the grantee therein, to the property bought at any sale herein authorized and therein conveyed.

(c)

In case of redemption, it shall be the duty of the Director of Finance to immediately notify the purchaser by letter, mailed to him at the address given beneath his signature to the memorandum of sale. Such memorandum shall be taken by the Director. The Director shall enter such redemption upon his books and over his signature, upon the report of sale dealing with the property redeemed.

(d)

The Director shall also deposit the redemption money in some bank or banks approved by him in the name of the County. The Director shall maintain accurate records separately accounting for the receipt and disbursement of such monies.

(Laws 1898, ch. 222, Sec. 116B; PLL 1912, Art. 17, Sec. 220; PLL 1930, Art. 17, Sec. 353; Laws 1933, ch. 181; 1943 Code, Sec. 452; 1953 Code, Sec. 490; Laws 1957, ch. 817, Sec. 490; Laws 1968, ch. 339, Sec. 1; PLL 1963; Sec. 20-12; CB-158-1977; Laws 1977, ch. 266; CB-23-1980; CB-123-1983)