[Added by L.L. No. 4-1945]
In addition to the right of the City to foreclose its lien for taxes as provided for in its Charter and the general laws, the right of the City to receive taxes, assessments and water rents and the lien thereof, may be sold by the City, and after such sale, shall be transferred in the manner provided by this article. In this article, unless the context otherwise requires, the word "tax" shall be interpreted as including water rents, expenses incurred in repairing, grading and removing snow and ice from sidewalks, assessments and all other items inserted in the annual tax rolls and made a part of the annual tax upon lands and tenements thereon. The right and lien so sold shall be called "tax lien" and the instrument by which it is assigned shall be called "transfer of tax lien."
In each year not later than the last Tuesday of June, whenever any tax of lands or tenements or any portion thereof or any assessments on lands or tenements for local improvements, or any portion thereof, shall remain unpaid for the term of two years from the time the same shall have been fully confirmed, so as to be due and payable, the Comptroller shall advertise such tax liens on the said lands and tenements or any portion thereof, for sale, including in such advertisement the tax liens for all items up to a day named in the advertisement, and by such advertisement the owner or owners of such lands and tenements respectively shall be required to pay the amount of such tax or assessment with the penalties thereon so remaining unpaid, together with the interest thereon at the rate of 8% per annum to the time of payment, with the charges of such notice and advertisement, to the said Comptroller and notice shall be given by such advertisement that if default shall be made in such payment, the tax lien on such lands and tenements will be sold at public auction at a day and place therein to be specified, but not later than the last Tuesday of June of each year, for the lowest rate of interest, not exceeding 10% per annum, at which any person or persons shall offer to take the same in consideration of advancing the said tax, assessment and penalties as the case may be, the interest thereon as aforesaid to the time of sale, the charges of the above-mentioned notices and advertisement and all other costs and charges accrued thereon; and if, notwithstanding such notice, the owner or owners shall refuse or neglect to pay such tax, assessment and penalties, with the interest aforesaid, and the charges attending such notice and advertisement, then it shall and may be lawful for the said Comptroller to cause such tax lien on such lands and tenements to be sold at public auction, for the purpose and in the manner expressed on the said advertisement, and such sale shall be made on the day and at the place for that purpose mentioned in the said advertisement, and if necessary, shall be continued from time to time in the discretion of the Comptroller. Where in addition to the tax and/or assessment unpaid for a term of two years, there are assessments and/or installments of assessments and/or taxes unpaid for the term of one year from the time the same have been confirmed on the same lands and tenements, the Comptroller may also advertise and sell the said tax liens at the same time and; in the case of unpaid installments on the assessments, the entire amount of the unpaid assessments may be sold at the same time; but should payment be made of the tax liens in arrears for two years as herein provided, the tax lien in arrears for one year shall be withdrawn from the said sale.
The tax lien on houses or lots, or improved or unimproved lands in the City of Mount Vernon shall not be hereafter sold at public auction for the nonpayment of any tax or assessment which may be due thereon, unless notice of such sale shall have been published once in each week for the four weeks consecutive next preceding the date fixed for said sale in the official newspaper of the City, which advertisement shall contain, appended to said notice, a statement of the property, the tax lien on which is to be sold by giving the block and lot number or numbers thereof, according to the designation thereof on the Official Assessment Map of the City of Mount Vernon. On the said statement and description, instead of being published in the official newspaper of the City, shall, at the option of the Comptroller, be printed in a pamphlet, in which case copies of the pamphlet shall be deposited in the office of the Comptroller and shall be delivered to any person applying therefor. And the notice provided for in this section to be given of the sale of tax liens on houses and lots and improved and unimproved lands shall also state that the statement of the taxes and assessments and the property taxed or assessed is published in the official newspaper of the City, or in a pamphlet, as the case may be, and that copies of the pamphlet are deposited in the office of the said Comptroller and will be delivered to any person applying for the same. No other notice or demand of the tax or assessment shall be required to authorize the sale of tax or assessment liens on any lands or tenements as hereinbefore provided. The Comptroller may cancel any certificate or lease for unpaid taxes or assessments held by the City of Mount Vernon or to which the City has acquired the right, and upon such cancellation the lien of tax or assessment shall be the same as if no sale for such unpaid tax or assessment had been made. Where the tax liens are for taxes and/or assessments for more than one year, the total amount plus accrued interest shall be stated in the notice published or printed and it shall not be necessary to include in the statement separately the tax and/or assessment for each year. Where an installment for any assessment is unpaid for two years, the entire amount of the unpaid assessment may be sold.
In addition to the annual sale of tax liens as herein provided, the first sale under this article to be held in the year 1946, in the discretion of the Comptroller, more than one sale of tax liens or assessments may be held in any one year, in which case the Comptroller shall adopt the same course of procedure as set forth herein, and offer such liens for sale on the last Tuesday of any month.
It shall be lawful for the Comptroller to suspend or postpone any sale or sales of tax or assessment liens on lands and tenements or any portion thereof which shall have been advertised for sale, to any time not exceeding six months. All sales which shall be so postponed or suspended may be made without further advertisement, other than a general notice of such postponement, to be published in the official newspaper of the City.
The Comptroller or his Deputy shall conduct the sales hereinbefore provided to be made and no auctioneer other than the Comptroller or his Deputy shall be employed to make such sale and no auctioneer's fees shall be charged thereon. The Comptroller shall require from each purchaser of a tax or assessment lien at the time of such a sale a deposit on account of 10% of the amount of the tax lien purchased by him, and not later than 15 days from the date of the sale, the balance shall be paid to the Comptroller at his office. If no bid shall be received for a tax lien offered for sale, the Comptroller for and on behalf of the City of Mount Vernon may bid in the said tax or assessment lien, and upon such bid no deposit or payment in cash shall be required from the City. When the City has bid in any tax or assessment lien, a transfer of tax or assessment lien to the City may be executed by the said Comptroller in the form and manner prescribed for other transfers of tax liens, and the City shall have the same rights in, to and under such transfer of tax or assessment liens as if the same had been bought by any other person. Transfer or tax or assessment liens shall be made and delivered to the purchaser without charge upon payment of the amounts therein shown to be due. In case any purchaser shall not complete his purchase in accordance with the terms prescribed as herein provided, then the amount deposited by him at the time of the sale shall be forfeited to the City, and the entire tax or assessment lien upon the lands affected by such purchase shall be sold again. Such resale shall be held at such time as the Comptroller may direct and shall be advertised in the official newspaper of the City, in such manner and for such time, not less than two weeks, as the Comptroller may direct. All deposits forfeited as aforesaid shall be paid into the general fund of the City of Mount Vernon.
A transfer of tax lien shall operate to transfer and assign the tax lien upon the lands or tenements described therein for the taxes and assessments and penalties and interest thereon, and the charges of the notices and advertisement given pursuant to § 162-b of this Act, and all other costs and charges, so advertised for sale, free of all taxes, assessments and water rents which accrued before the day of the date mentioned in the advertisement of the sale as stated therein, and to create a lien upon the property affected thereby for the interest to which the purchaser may be entitled under his bid, but subject to the lien for and right of the City to collect and receive all taxes and assessments which accrued or which became a lien on and after the day of the date of the first advertisement of such sale as stated therein. A transfer of tax lien shall contain a transfer and assignment by the City of the tax or assessment lien sold to the purchaser, the date of the sale, the aggregate amount of the lien so transferred, and the items of taxes, assessments, penalties and interest composing the tax or assessment lien, the annual rate of interest which the purchaser has bid and will be entitled to receive, the date when the amount of the tax or assessment lien will be due, and a description of the real property affected by the tax or assessment lien, and shall refer for certainty to the designation of said lot on the Official City Map, by its lot number and the number of the block and section in which it is contained, and such other identifying description as the Comptroller may deem proper to add. Each transfer of tax or assessment lien shall be subscribed by or in behalf of the Comptroller making the sale or a successor in office of such Comptroller and shall be acknowledged by the officer subscribing the same in the manner in which a deed is required to be acknowledged to be recorded in the county in which the real property affected is situated. The Comptroller may assign any transfer of tax or assessment liens made and delivered to the City upon payment of the amount thereof with interest at the rate bid to the time of such assignment.
The Comptroller shall keep in his office a public record of sales of tax and assessment liens and a copy of each transfer of such liens issued by him. Assignments of transfer of tax or assessment liens duly acknowledged may be filed and recorded in the office of the Comptroller. A transfer of tax or assessment lien and any assignment thereof, duly acknowledged, shall be deemed conveyances under Article 8 of the Real Property Law, and may be recorded in the office of the recording officer of any county in which the real property which it affects is situated. Transfers of tax and assessment liens and all assignments thereof shall be recorded by recording officers in the same manner as mortgages and assignments thereof, but without payment of tax under Article 14 of the Tax Law. The record in the office of the Comptroller of sales of tax or assessment lien, of a transfer of tax or assessment lien, and of a copy of a transfer of tax or assessment lien, and of an assignment of a transfer of tax or assessment lien; a record of a transfer of tax or assessment lien in the office of a recording officer, and of an assignment of tax or assessment lien, duly acknowledged, in the office of the recording officer, shall be evidence in any court without further proof. A transcript of any record enumerated in this section, duly certified, shall be evidence in any court with like effect as the original instrument of record. Neither the tax or assessment lien nor the rights transferred or created by a transfer of tax lien shall be impaired by failure of a recording officer to record a transfer of tax lien made by the City through the Comptroller. Unless a contrary intent appears, a tax or assessment lien shall be presumed to be satisfied and discharged whenever it shall appear from recorded instruments that the tax lien has been transferred or assigned to the owner of such lands or tenements, notwithstanding other intervening estates or liens.
The aggregate amount of each tax or assessment lien transferred pursuant to this article shall be due three years from the date of the sale. Until such aggregate amount is fully paid and discharged, the holder of the transfer of tax or assessment lien shall be entitled to receive interest on the aggregate amount from the date of sale, semiannually on the first day of January and July, at the rate which the purchaser shall have bid. At the option of the holder of any transfer of tax or assessment lien, the aggregate amount thereof shall become due and payable after default in the payment of interest for 90 days or after default for one year after the delivery of the transfer of tax lien, in the payment of any taxes or assessments which became a lien on and after the day of the date mentioned in the advertisement of the sale stated therein, of the tax or assessment lien transferred by such transfer of tax lien, except that in the event that the City of Mount Vernon becomes the owner of a tax or assessment lien, the aggregate amount thereof shall become due and payable after default in the payment of interest for 90 days or after default for 30 days in the payment of any tax or assessment, which became a lien on said property after the date of the tax lien sold. Any person having a legal or beneficial interest in property affected by a transfer of tax or assessment lien may satisfy the same before maturity upon giving 10 days' notice in writing to the holder thereof of the day on which payment will be made and upon payment of the principal with interest at the rate bid to a time two months after the date so fixed for payment. If notice of intention to make payment be given as herein provided, and such payment be not made, then the whole amount of any tax or assessment lien concerning which such notice shall have been given shall become due and payable at the option of the holder thereof. Or any such person may pay to the Comptroller such principal with interest at the rate bid up to a day three months after such payment. In case such payment be made to the Comptroller, he shall receive the same for the benefit of the holder of the transfer of tax lien thus discharged, and shall give notice thereof to the purchaser or the personal representative or assignee of the purchaser, by mail, addressed to such address as may have been furnished to the Comptroller. Upon receiving surrender of such transfer of tax lien, the Comptroller shall pay the amount thus deposited to the person, who according to the records in his office, appears to be entitled thereto, or to the personal representative of such person, except when any party to an action to foreclose a tax lien or any purchaser or person having an interest in the premises may file a written notice that an action for that purpose is pending with the Comptroller, and thereafter said Comptroller shall not be authorized to discharge said lien or receive any sum or sums of money for that purpose unless the party desiring to satisfy the same shall pay the amount of such tax lien, with interest to the date of payment, and all other taxes, tax liens or charges against the premises, and also all costs, charges and disbursements in the foreclosure action to the date of payment; or shall file with the said Comptroller the original transfer of tax lien and a satisfaction thereof duly executed by the plaintiff in the action.
A tax or assessment lien sold pursuant to the provisions of this article must be discharged upon the record thereof by the Comptroller when payment is made to him of the principal and interest as provided in the last preceding section, and also when such transfer of tax lien is surrendered to him for cancellation and there is presented to him a certificate executed by the purchaser or his personal representative or assignee of the purchaser, acknowledged so as to be entitled to be recorded in the county in which the real property affected by such transfer of tax lien is situated, certifying that the tax and assessment lien has been paid or has been otherwise satisfied and discharged. The transfer of tax or tax assessment lien thus surrendered and such certificate of discharge must be filed by the Comptroller and he must note upon the margin of the record of such sale, upon such transfer of tax or assessment liens and upon the copy of such transfer of tax liens kept in his office, a minute of such discharge and the date of filing thereof. If such transfer of tax lien shall have been lost or destroyed or mutilated, if payment be made to the Comptroller, if a certificate of discharge be filed as hereinafter provided, application for an order dispensing with the surrender of such transfer of tax lien may be made in the same manner as is provided in § 321 of the Real Property Law, the provisions of which, so far as the same may be, are hereby made applicable to discharge of tax or assessment liens. The Comptroller shall upon demand issue his certificate showing the discharge of any tax lien which may have been duly discharged as provided in this section, and such certificate may be filed in any office where the transfer of tax liens is recorded, and any recording officer with whom such a certificate is filed shall record the same and upon the margin of the record of such transfer of tax or assessment lien in his office shall note a statement that the same has been discharged with a reference to the record of such certificate in his office.
[Amended by L.L. No. 1-1972]
If no bid be received for a tax lien on any parcel of property at a duly advertised sale and it shall appear to the Comptroller that the taxes, assessments, penalties and accrued interest amount to so large a proportion of the value of the property that the security is insufficient to attract bidders, then and in that event, the Comptroller may bid in the lien on behalf of the City for execution and delivery of transfer of tax lien and future foreclosure of said transfer of tax lien by the City. Or the Comptroller, President of the City Council and the Commissioner of Assessment and Taxation may investigate the facts and may subject to the approval of the City Council and Board of Estimate and Contract, fix a lesser amount for which in their judgment a tax lien bearing 10% interest can be sold. A certificate in writing, signed by them, shall be filed with the Comptroller setting forth the amount so determined by them, together with a brief statement of the reasons for such reduction, which certificate shall include, the total amount of the taxes, assessments, water rents, penalties and accrued interest, the assessed value of said property as the same appears on the last preceding assessment roll. Thereafter such reduced amount shall constitute the tax lien upon said real property for the items therein enumerated, unless the same be increased as thereinafter provided which reduced amount shall bear interest at the rate of 8% per annum from the date of such certificate until fully paid, or until the tax lien thus fixed, together with the lien for any other taxes, assessments, water rents, and penalties and interest becoming liens thereafter shall be sold. In the event that the Comptroller adopts this latter course of procedure, of fixation of lien of tax at a reduced amount, then said Comptroller shall forthwith advertise the tax or assessment lien for such reduced amount for sale to the highest bidder in the manner provided for the advertisement for the sale of ordinary tax liens. Such lien shall bear interest at 10% and shall be sold to the person bidding the highest amount of money in excess of the reduced amount so fixed by the Comptroller, President of the City Council and Commissioner of Assessment and Taxation, provided, that if the bidding reaches the original amount of the tax lien on the real property affected, together with all interest and penalties thereon, the sale shall proceed in the manner provided in § 162-d. If such tax lien be sold for a sum greater than the reduced amount fixed as aforesaid with the interest and penalties thereon, then such greater amount shall be considered the tax lien upon the real property affected thereby.
[Amended by L.L. No. 1-1972]
If at any time prior to the sale of real property in an action by the City to foreclose its lien for taxes or a transfer of tax lien, it shall be determined by the Comptroller, the President of the City Council and the Commissioner of Assessment and Taxation that the property is not reasonably worth and will not sell for a price sufficient to pay all of the taxes, assessments, water rents and charge against the property and the expenses of foreclosure and sale, they are hereby authorized and empowered to fix a fair market price for the same, and the Corporation Counsel or Comptroller shall not be obligated to bid above the price so fixed and said Comptroller hereby is further authorized and empowered to cancel all of the taxes, assessments, water rents and charges against the same upon receiving payment of the amount so fixed. The said determination of the Comptroller, President of the City Council and Commissioner of Assessment and Taxation shall be stated in writing, shall be approved by the City Council and Board of Estimate and Contract and shall be filed in the office of the Comptroller, prior to sale thereof.
[Amended by L.L. No. 1-1972]
When in the opinion of the Comptroller, President of the City Council and Commissioner of Assessment and Taxation, it appears advantageous to sell or discharge any tax lien or transfer of tax lien owned by the City for an amount less than the face value thereof, they shall so certify to the City Council in writing specifying the amount for which they recommend the lien shall be sold or discharged. Upon approval of said recommendation by the City Council and Board of Estimate and Contract, the Comptroller may sell or discharge the said lien for the amount so specified.
It shall be the duty of the Corporation Counsel to protect the interest of the City in all matters, actions and proceedings relating to tax liens and transfer of tax liens; to intervene on behalf of the City or of the holder of a transfer of a tax lien in, or to make the City a party to any action in which he believes it to be to the interest of the City so to do, by reason of any matter arising under or relating to any tax lien or transfer of tax lien, or advertisement of sale of tax liens.
Whenever any transfer of tax lien given by the Comptroller as in this article provided, shall be lost, the Comptroller may receive evidence of such loss, and on satisfactory proof of the fact may execute and deliver a duplicate to such person or persons who appear entitled thereto, and may also in his discretion, require a bond of indemnity to the City of Mount Vernon.