6570-6572
STREETS AND HIGHWAYS CODE
SECTION 6570-6572
6570. 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.
6571. 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.
6572. 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.