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House Bill 406 |
House Author: Rodriguez |
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Effective: 9-1-09 |
Senate Sponsor: Carona |
House Bill 406 amends the Tax Code to establish requirements for the distribution, by a person who conducts a sale for the foreclosure of a tax lien under rules of civil procedure governing expedited foreclosure proceedings, of any excess proceeds following payment of amounts due to participants. The bill provides that a former owner of tax sale property, in order to establish a claim on excess proceeds, must have been a defendant in the judgment, be related within the third degree by consanguinity or affinity to a former owner who was a defendant, or have acquired by will or intestate succession the interest of a former owner who was a defendant. It prohibits a former owner who acquired an interest after the date of the judgment from establishing a claim to the proceeds except in such consanguinity, affinity, will, or intestate succession cases. The bill amends statutes governing the assignment of an owner's claim to excess proceeds to apply also to the transfer of a claim and revises and adds to the prerequisites for an assignment or transfer to be taken. An assignee or transferee who attempts to obtain excess proceeds without complying with such prerequisites is liable to the assignor or transferor for attorney's fees and expenses. The bill requires the assignee or transferee to produce, at the hearing regarding a claim to excess proceeds, evidence verifying payment of consideration given for the assignment or transfer or, if the original of such evidence is lost or the payment was in cash, to obtain the presence of the assignor or transferor to testify. It prohibits a non-attorney from charging a fee to obtain excess proceeds and prohibits the court from ordering payment of excess proceeds to an assignee or transferee greater than 125 percent of the amount the assignee or transferee paid the assignor or transferor.