Chapter 30 - § 30.5 • TAX DEEDS (OTHER THAN TO COUNTIES)

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

§ 30.5 • TAX DEEDS (OTHER THAN TO COUNTIES)

§ 30.5.1—In General

At any time after three years from the date of the sale of a tax lien, on demand of the purchaser or lawful holder of the tax sale certificate (other than the county in which the property is situated²³⁸ ), and on presentation of the certificate (or properly authenticated order of the board of county commissioners, where the certificate has been lost or wrongfully withheld from the owner²³⁹ ) and upon proof of compliance with C.R.S. § 39-11-128,²⁴⁰ the treasurer must make out a deed for each lot, parcel, interest, or improvement for which a tax lien was sold and which remains unredeemed and deliver the same to the purchaser or lawful holder of the tax sale certificate or order.²⁴¹ The purpose of a tax deed is to transfer the taxpayer's entire ownership interest in the subject property by conveying the totality of the land on which the taxes are delinquent.²⁴²

The three-year period applies to the issuance of the tax deed; the demand and publication may be initiated before the three-year period has expired.²⁴³ The demand may be oral or in the form of a written but unsigned demand.²⁴⁴ When a tax sale certificate is lost or wrongfully withheld from the rightful owner and the land, interest, or improvement has not been redeemed, the board of county commissioners may receive evidence of the loss or wrongful detention and, upon satisfactory proof of such fact, may cause a certificate of such proof and finding, properly attested by the clerk and recorder under the seal of the county, to be delivered to the rightful claimant, and a record thereof must be made by the clerk and recorder in the recorded proceedings of the board.²⁴⁵

When a tax lien is bid in by or for a city, town, or city and county, the city, town, or city and county is entitled to a deed, as provided for purchasers at tax sales.²⁴⁶

§ 30.5.2—Notice of Request or Demand for Tax Deed

To obtain a tax deed, the purchaser (or assignee of the purchaser) of a tax lien must make a request upon the treasurer.²⁴⁷ (Prior to the 1937 amendment of the real property tax statute,²⁴⁸ a request was necessary only if the assessed valuation was $100 or more.²⁴⁹ )

Any number of tracts or parcels of land not exceeding 25, whether contiguous or noncontiguous, or whether included in an irrigation district or not so included, and although tax liens for such tracts or parcels of land were separately sold at the tax sale or covered by more than one tax sale certificate, may be included and described in one notice of application for tax deed.²⁵⁰ (This provision was added in 1939.²⁵¹ But even prior to the 1939 amendment, there was no prohibition against including several separate and distinct tax sale certificates, of distinct and separate years, in one request for a tax deed.²⁵² And, of course, a tax deed itself may convey more than one tract of land, whether contiguous or noncontiguous.²⁵³ The 1939 Act also validated all requests for tax deeds and notices containing more than one certificate or tract.²⁵⁴ ) The name of the person in whose name the land for which a tax lien was sold was taxed or specially assessed for the year for which the tax lien was sold must be prominently displayed in the notice at or near the beginning thereof and near or with a reference to the number of the tax sale certificate and the description of the land involved, sufficient to enable identification of the land with the name of the person assessed if all certificates so sought to be included in a single notice or request are held by one person, or jointly held by more than one person.²⁵⁵

Upon such request, the treasurer must proceed as follows:

Notice by personal service or registered or certified mail: The treasurer must serve, or cause to be served, by personal service or by either registered or certified mail, a notice of the purchase:

• On every person in actual possession or occupancy of the property.²⁵⁶ A tax deed is not admissible in evidence to establish title to real property unless it is proven whether the land was occupied or vacant, and if occupied, that before the deed was issued the notice was served upon the occupant.²⁵⁷ The wife of the record owner of land residing with her husband in the family home is not in the actual possession thereof in the sense contemplated by the statute. Where the husband holds the record title to land, the joint possession thereof by husband and wife is the possession of the husband, even though the wife may have filed a statutory homestead exemption.²⁵⁸ Notice must be served upon a tenant occupying the property.²⁵⁹
• On the person in whose name it was taxed or specially assessed if, upon diligent inquiry,²⁶⁰ such person can be found in the county or if his or her residence outside the county is known.²⁶¹
• On all persons having an interest or title of record²⁶² in or to the same if, upon diligent inquiry, the residence of such persons can be determined.²⁶³ A beneficiary²⁶⁴ or a co-beneficiary²⁶⁵ is entitled to notice, but the assignor of the entire interest under a deed of trust is not entitled to notice.²⁶⁶ Condominium owners are entitled to notice of the issuance of a tax deed for the common area.²⁶⁷ The "interest or title of record" must be of record in the office of the clerk and recorder; a notation of the assignment of a tax sale certificate on the records of the treasurer is not sufficient.²⁶⁸ It is not necessary that the specific interest or title of record be declared in the recorded instrument.²⁶⁹

This provision requires the treasurer to notify all persons having an interest or title of record in real property who have the right of redemption²⁷⁰ so as to afford record owners an opportunity to redeem real property before it is lost through a treasurer's deed.²⁷¹ "Diligent" means a "steady, earnest, attentive, and energetic application and effort in a pursuit." "Diligent inquiry" requires that if a notice has been returned, the treasurer must re-examine the county records to check the address for accuracy and look for an alternative address.²⁷² A treasurer owes a duty of further diligent inquiry after an initial notice has been sent only when the facts known to the treasurer show that the taxpayer could not have received the notice of the pending sale.²⁷³ But if no alternative address is found, the treasurer is not required to take additional steps.²⁷⁴ Diligent inquiry does not oblige the treasurer to consult the records of the secretary of state,²⁷⁵ nor is the treasurer required "to do all that a lawyer would do to locate lost heirs or an absconding debtor."²⁷⁶

The notice must be served not more than five months nor less than three months before the time of issuance of the deed.²⁷⁷ Service is effective when the notice is properly addressed, registered or certified, and mailed.²⁷⁸ In the notice the treasurer must state when the applicant or his or her assignor purchased the tax lien, in whose name the property was taxed, the description of the property, for what year taxed or specially assessed, and when the time of redemption will expire or when the tax deed shall be issued.²⁷⁹ The fact that a tax deed is not issued until 15 days after the date fixed by the notice does not render the tax deed void.²⁸⁰ A tax deed is not admissible in evidence to establish title to real property unless it is first proven that before the deed was issued the statutory notice of when the time for redemption would expire was given (or, alternatively, under prior law, that the assessed valuation was less than the statutory amount).²⁸¹ If the notice falsely states when the time for redemption will expire, the tax deed is void.²⁸² If the notice is prepared after three years after the date of the tax sale, it is not necessary to make any statement in the notice concerning the time of expiration of the period of redemption.²⁸³

Notice by publication: Where the valuation for assessment of the property is $500 or more, the treasurer must publish the notice, three times, at intervals of one week, in some daily, weekly, or semi-weekly newspaper published in the county, not more than five months nor less than three months before the time at which the tax deed may issue. He or she must also send by registered mail or certified mail a copy of the notice to each person not found to be served whose address is known or can be determined upon diligent inquiry. If no such newspaper is published in the county, then the notice must be published in a newspaper that is published in Colorado nearest the county seat of the county. The treasurer must make and preserve among the files in his or her office a record of all things done under C.R.S. § 39-11-128 and must certify to the same. The purchaser or assignee, at the time of making the request for notification on the treasurer, must pay to the treasurer the fee provided in C.R.S. § 30-1-102.²⁸⁴ (Prior to the 1937 amendment of the statute,²⁸⁵ publication was required only if no person was in actual possession or occupancy, and the residence of the person in whose name the property was taxed and the residence of none of the persons having interests or title of record could be determined after diligent inquiry.²⁸⁶ )

When a request is made for a tax deed to lands situated wholly within the exterior boundary lines of an irrigation district, the holder of the certificate of purchase may include in one request or demand for a tax deed all contiguous tracts for which he or she holds such certificates of purchase. When all of such lands are unoccupied and no taxes have been paid thereon, or upon any parcel of such lands, for five consecutive years prior to the making of the request or demand, the only notice which the treasurer is required to give is a notice of publication as provided in C.R.S. § 39-11-128(1)(b), in which as many tracts or parcels shall be described as are embraced in any one demand or request for deed.²⁸⁷

The purpose of C.R.S. § 39-11-128 is to forbid the...