§ 12-195h — Assignment of liens securing unpaid taxes on real property. Powers and rights of assignee. Contract to memorialize assignment required. Notice of assignment. Notice prior to commencing an action to foreclose lien.

Connecticut § 12-195h

• Jurisdiction: Connecticut
• Title 12: Taxation
• Ch. 205: Municipal Tax Liens

Text

(a) Any municipality, by resolution of its legislative body, as defined in section 1-1, may assign, for consideration, any and all liens filed by the tax collector to secure unpaid taxes on real property as provided under the provisions of this chapter. The consideration received by the municipality shall be negotiated between the municipality and the assignee. (b) The assignee or assignees of such liens shall have and possess the same powers and rights at law or in equity that such municipality and municipality's tax collector would have had if the lien had not been assigned with regard to the precedence and priority of such lien, the accrual of interest and the fees and expenses of collection and of preparing and recording the assignment, except that any such assignee (1) shall not be insulated from liability for its conduct by virtue of the provisions of section 42-110c , and (2) shall be obligated to provide a payoff statement, as defined in section 49-8a , in the same manner as a mortgagee in accordance with the requirements of section 49-10a . The assignee shall have the same rights to enforce such liens as any private party holding a lien on real property including, but not limited to, foreclosure and a suit on the debt. (c) No such assignment executed on or after July 1, 2022, shall be valid or enforceable unless memorialized in a contract executed by the municipality and the assignee that is in writing and provides: (1) The manner in which the assignee will provide to the owner of the real property that is the subject of the assignment one or more addresses and telephone numbers that may be used for correspondence with the assignee about the debt and payment thereof; (2) the earliest and latest dates by which the assignee shall commence any foreclosure or suit on the debt or the manner for determining such dates, except as may be impacted by any payment arrangement, bankruptcy petition or other circumstance, provided in no event shall the assignee commence a foreclosure suit before one year has elapsed since the assignee's purchase of the lien; (3) the structure and rates of attorney's fees that the assignee may claim against the owner or owners of such real property in any foreclosure, suit on the debt or otherwise, and a prohibition from using as foreclosure counsel any attorney or law office that is owned by, employs or contracts with any person having an interest in such assignee; (4) confirmation that the owner of the real property for which the lien has been filed shall be a third-party beneficiary entitled to enforce the covenants and responsibilities of the assignee as contained in the contract; (5) a prohibition on the assignee assigning the lien without the municipality's prior written consent; (6) the detail and frequency of reports provided to the municipality's tax collector regarding the status of the assigned liens; (7) confirmation that the assignee is not ineligible, pursuant to section 31-57b , to be assigned the lien because of occupational safety and health law violations; (8) disclosure of (A) all resolved and pending arbitrations and litigation matters in which the assignee or any of its principals have been involved within the last ten years, except foreclosure actions involving liens purchased from or assigned by governmental entities, (B) all criminal proceedings that the assignee or any of its principals has ever been the subject, (C) any interest in the subject property held by the assignee or any of its principals, officers or agents, and (D) each instance in which the assignee or any of its principals was found to have violated any state or local ethics law, regulation, ordinance, code, policy or standard, or to have committed any other offense arising out of the submission of proposals or bids or the performance of work on public contract; and (9) such additional terms to which the municipality and the assignee mutually agree, consistent with applicable law. (d) The assignee, or any subsequent assignee, shall provide written notice of an assignment, not later than sixty days after the date of such assignment, to the owner and any holder of a mortgage, on the real property that is the subject of the assignment, provided such owner or holder is of record as of the date of such assignment. Such notice shall include information sufficient to identify (1) the property that is subject to the lien and in which the holder has an interest, (2) the name and addresses of the assignee, and (3) the amount of unpaid taxes, interest and fees being assigned relative to the subject property as of the date of the assignment. (e) Not less than sixty days prior to commencing an action to foreclose a lien under this section, the assignee shall provide a written notice, by first-class mail, to the holders of all first or second security interests on the property subject to the lien that were recorded before the date the assessment the lien sought to be enforced became delinquent. Such notice shall set forth: (1) The amount of unpaid debt owed to the assignee as of the date of the notice; (2) the amount of any attorney's fees and costs incurred by the assignee in the enforcement of the lien as of the date of the notice; (3) a statement of the assignee's intention to foreclose the lien if the amounts set forth pursuant to subdivisions (1) and (2) of this subsection are not paid to the assignee on or before sixty days after the date the notice is provided; (4) the assignee's contact information, including, but not limited to, the assignee's name, mailing address, telephone number and electronic mail address, if any; and (5) instructions concerning the acceptable means of making a payment on the amounts owed to the assignee as set forth pursuant to subdivisions (1) and (2) of this subsection. Any notice required under this subsection shall be effective upon the date such notice is provided. (f) When providing the written notice required under subsection (e) of this section, the assignee may rely on the last recorded security interest of record in identifying the name and mailing address of the holder of such interest, unless the holder of such interest is the plaintiff in an action pending in Superior Court to enforce such interest, in which case the assignee shall provide the written notice to the attorney appearing on behalf of the plaintiff. (g) Each aspect of a foreclosure, sale or other disposition under this section, including, but not limited to, the costs, attorney fees, method, advertising, time, date, place and terms, shall be commercially reasonable.

Legislative History

(P.A. 93-434, S. 19, 20; P.A. 13-135, S. 16; 13-276, S. 40; P.A. 21-143, S. 1; P.A. 22-94, S. 19.) History: P.A. 93-434 effective June 30, 1993; P.A. 13-135 added provisions re notice of assignment; P.A. 13-276 added provision re fees and expenses of preparing and recording the assignment and added provision re foreclosure and a suit on the debt; P.A. 21-143 designated existing provisions re authority of municipality to assign liens filed by the tax collector to secure unpaid property taxes as Subsec. (a), designated existing provisions re the powers and rights of the assignee as Subsec. (b) and amended the same by adding Subdiv. (1) re the assignee's inability to be insulated from liability under Sec. 42-110c and adding Subdiv. (2) re the assignee's obligation to provide payoff statement in the same manner as a mortgagee, added Subsec. (c) requiring assignments executed on or after July 1, 2022, to be memorialized in a contract, designated existing provisions re written notice of assignment as Subsec. (d) and amended the same by changing the deadline for such notice from 30 to 60 days after the date of assignment and by requiring such notice be provided to the owner, added Subsecs. (e) and (f) re notice by the assignee of foreclosure of the lien, added Subsec. (g) requiring commercially reasonable foreclosure, sale or other disposition of the real property, and made technical changes; P.A. 22-94 made a technical change in Subsec. (f). Change in marital status affecting ownership is not by itself good cause to open foreclosure judgment based on change in circumstances. 52 CA 52. A municipal tax lien is more analogous to a transfer of debt than to a transfer of title and as such is not considered a “conveyance” under Sec. 47-10, and accordingly, more specific statutes, such as this section, governing tax liens, which do not require recordation, should take precedence over more general land transfer statutes, such as Sec. 47-10, which do require recordation, thus an assignee's failure to record the assignment of a tax lien does not deprive such assignee of standing to bring a foreclosure action. 196 CA 279. Amendment in 2013 adding “suit on the debt” does not affect situation where plaintiff or assignee acquired title to property by foreclosure because pursuant to Sec. 12-195 all of its claims, in whatever form those claims might take, were extinguished upon such acquisition. 196 CA 298. Assignee succeeds only to the assignor municipality's enforcement right empowered by Sec. 12-181, and not to the municipality's other authorized collection methods. 45 CS 435.