Chapter 9. Contesting Validity Of Sales And Deeds For Delinquency of California Streets And Highways Code >> Division 7. >> Part 5. >> Chapter 9.

Within 60 days after the sale of the property for delinquency, the purchaser may send to the person to whom the property is assessed for purposes of taxation as shown upon the last equalized assessment roll of the county in which the property lies, and to the person in whose name, on the date the sale is made, the legal title to the property appears by deed duly recorded in the office of the county recorder of the county in which the property lies, by registered mail and first-class mail, postage prepaid, a copy of the certificate of sale. Together with the copy of the certificate of sale, a notice shall be sent that is printed in at least 14-point boldface type in the following form:

YOUR PROPERTY HAS BEEN SOLD

Your property located at ____ has been sold by the treasurer's office of the city (or county) for nonpayment of ____ improvement assessment. You have one year from the date this notice was mailed to contest the validity of the sale.

If a copy of the certificate of sale is sent as provided in this section, no action, suit, or proceeding to set aside, cancel, or in any manner attack or question the validity of any sale for delinquency, or any proceedings prior thereto, shall be commenced or maintained by any person unless the same shall be commenced within one year after the date the above notice was mailed. After the year has expired, all persons shall be barred from commencing or prosecuting any such action, suit, or proceeding, and any and all persons shall be barred from asserting or maintaining in any action, suit, or proceeding that the sale, or any proceedings prior thereto, was invalid.

Any action, suit, or proceeding attacking or contesting the validity of any deed issued under the provisions of this division, or the validity of the proceedings subsequent to the issuance of the certificate of sale, shall be brought within 12 months after the issuance of the deed, and if the validity of the deed or of the proceedings is not contested within that 12 months' period, it shall not be thereafter contested or questioned in any action, suit, or proceeding, except that an action, suit, or proceeding with respect to any deed of owner-occupied residential property may be brought within 12 months after discovery of the issuance of the deed or, for owner-occupied residential property sold between January 1, 1969, and January 1, 1979, within 12 months after the enactment of the amendments to this section made during the 1981-82 Regular Session of the Legislature. A defense to a proceeding pursuant to this section shall be that the current owner of record is a bona fide purchaser for value. The Legislature finds and declares that the court of appeal in Atkins v. Kessler, 97 Cal. App. 3d 784, held that under the former provisions of this division the statute of limitations in this section could not be raised against an owner in possession of residential real property during the entire period of delinquency and sale because due process was violated. It is therefore the intent of the Legislature that the amendments to this section made during the 1981-82 Regular Session of the Legislature shall be applied retrospectively with respect to any owners in possession of residential real property during the entire period of delinquency and at the time of the sale whose homes were sold pursuant to this act between January 1, 1969, and January 1, 1979.

If any sale of lands for delinquency in the payment of principal or interest of any bond is held illegal or invalid, or any deed issued to the purchaser at any such sale is held illegal or invalid for any reason whatsoever, the lands described in the bond shall not be released from the lien of the assessment but shall be and remain subject to further proceedings for the enforcement of the assessment, and the further proceedings may include additional sales or the issuance of new deeds. In any event, however, the lien of the assessment shall continue only until a valid sale is had and a valid deed issued, or until the expiration of two years after such sale or deed is held illegal or invalid, whichever is sooner.