1-1  By:  Ellis                                            S.B. No. 1567
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed March 13, 1995; March 21, 1995, read
    1-3  first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence; May 3, 1995,
    1-4  reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0;
    1-5  May 3, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to the statute of limitations applicable to real property
    1-9  sold for taxes.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Section 33.54, Tax Code, is amended to read as
   1-12  follows:
   1-13        Sec. 33.54.  Limitation on Actions Relating to Property Sold
   1-14  for Taxes.  (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this
   1-15  section, a cause of action relating to the title to property may
   1-16  not be maintained against the purchaser of the property at a tax
   1-17  sale unless the action commences within the applicable limitations
   1-18  period <three years> after the deed executed to the purchaser at
   1-19  the tax sale is filed of record.  For purposes of this section, the
   1-20  applicable limitations period shall be two years if the property
   1-21  sold at the tax sale was the residence homestead of the owner or
   1-22  was land designated for agricultural use when the suit to collect
   1-23  the tax was filed or one year for any other property.
   1-24        (b)  If a person other than the purchaser at the tax sale or
   1-25  his successor in interest pays taxes on the property during the
   1-26  applicable limitations period <three years following the date the
   1-27  deed is filed> and that person was not served citation in the suit
   1-28  to foreclose the tax lien, the applicable <three-year> limitations
   1-29  period does not apply to that person.
   1-30        (c)  When actions are barred by this section, the purchaser
   1-31  at the tax sale or his successor in interest shall be held to have
   1-32  full title to the property, precluding all other claims.
   1-33        (d)  Under this section and any other section of the Tax
   1-34  Code, a person challenging the validity of a tax sale shall not
   1-35  commence an action unless such person deposits into the registry of
   1-36  the court an amount equal to all taxes, penalties, interest, and
   1-37  costs on the property.
   1-38        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-39  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-40  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-41  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-42  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-43  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-44  passage, and it is so enacted.
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