LIENS,FORECLOSURE

 

[§231-61]  Tax liens; co-owners' rights. (a)  If a cotenancy exists and within the period of a tax lien, all of thetaxes, interest, penalties, and other additions to the tax, due and delinquentat the time of payment, are paid by a cotenant, the cotenant shall have a lienin an amount equal to the amount paid by the cotenant on the interest of anynoncontributing cotenant upon recording in the bureau of conveyances, withinninety days after the cotenant's payment, a sworn notice setting forth theamount claimed, a brief description of the land affected by tax key orotherwise, sufficient to identify the land, the taxes paid and the name of thecotenant upon whose interest the lien is asserted.  When a notice of the taxlien is recorded by a cotenant, the registrar shall cause the tax lien to beindexed in the general indexes of the bureau of conveyances.  If the landaffected is registered in the land court the notice shall also contain areference to the number of the certificate of title of the land and shall befiled and registered in the office of the assistant registrar of the landcourt, and the registrar, in the registrar's capacity as assistant registrar ofthe land court, shall make a notation of the filing thereof on each land courtcertificate of title so specified.

The cotenant's lien shall have the samepriority as the lien or liens of the State for the taxes paid by the cotenant,and may be enforced by an action in the nature of a suit in equity.  The lienshall continue for three years after recording or registering, or untiltermination of the proceedings for enforcement thereof if such proceedings arebegun and notice of the pendency thereof is recorded or filed and registered asprovided by law, within the period.

(b)  The director or the director'ssubordinate, in case of a state tax lien, and the creditor cotenant, in case ofa cotenant's lien, at the expense of the debtor, upon payment of the amount ofthe lien, shall execute and deliver to the debtor a sworn satisfaction thereof,including a reference to the name of the person assessed or cotenant affectedas shown in the original notice, the date of filing of the original notice, adescription of the land involved, and the number of the certificate of title ofthe land if registered in the land court.  When recorded in the bureau ofconveyances or filed and registered in the office of the assistant registrar ofthe land court, in the case of a cotenant's lien, which contains the referenceto the book and page of the original lien, the sworn satisfaction shall beentered in the general indexes of the bureau of conveyances, and if a notationof the original notice was made on any land court certificate of title thefiling of the satisfaction shall also be noted on the certificate.

This section as to cotenancy shall apply, aswell, in any case of ownership by more than one assessable person. [L 1989, c14, pt of §1(1)]