(a) The notice provided for in Code Section 48-4-45 shall be written or printed, or written in part and printed in part, and shall be in substantially the following form: Take notice that: The right to redeem the following described property, to wit: ____________ will expire and be forever foreclosed and barred on and after the ________ day of ________, ________. The tax deed to which this notice relates is dated the ________ day of ________, ________, and is recorded in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of ________ County, Georgia, in Deed Book ________ at page ________. The property may be redeemed at any time before the ________ day of ________, ________, by payment of the redemption price as fixed and provided by law to the undersigned at the following address: ________________________. Please be governed accordingly. ________________________
The purchaser at the tax sale or his heirs, successors, or assigns, as the case may be, shall make out an original notice in substantially the form prescribed in subsection (a) of this Code section and one copy of the notice for each person to be served with the notice. The purchaser shall deliver the notice and the copies together with a list of the persons to be served to the sheriff of the county in which the land is located not less than 45 days before the date set in each notice for the expiration of the right to redeem. Within 15 days after delivery to him, the sheriff shall serve a copy of the notice personally or by deputy upon each of the persons included on the list furnished him who reside in the county. The sheriff shall make an entry of the service on the original copy of the notice. Leaving a copy of the notice at the residence of any person required to be served with the notice shall be a sufficient service of the notice.
If the sheriff personally or by deputy makes an entry that he is unable for any reason to effect service upon any person required to be served, the person who requested that the service be made shall forthwith cause a copy of the notice to be published once a week for two consecutive weeks in the newspaper in which the sheriff's advertisements for the county are published, unless that notice is being published as provided in paragraph (3) of subsection (a) of Code Section 48-4-45. Either publication shall operate as and for all purposes shall be treated as service upon all persons as to whom the sheriff has made an entry that he has been unable to effect service.
Each original notice together with the entry of the sheriff on the notice shall be returned to the person by whom the service was requested upon the payment of the sheriff's costs as provided by law. Any original notice together with the entries on the notice may be filed and recorded on the deed records in the office of the clerk of the superior court of the county in which the land is located.
Service of notices as provided in this Code section may be waived in writing by any person required or entitled to be served with the notice.
(Ga. L. 1937, p. 491, § 2; Code 1933, § 91A-435, enacted by Ga. L. 1978, p. 309, § 2; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 48; Ga. L. 1989, p. 1391, § 2; Ga. L. 1999, p. 81, § 48.)
RESEARCH REFERENCES
Am. Jur. 2d.
- 30 Am. Jur. 2d, Executions, § 458. 72 Am. Jur. 2d, State and Local Taxation, § 911 et seq.
ALR.
- Tax title or deed as subject to attack for want of notice of application for tax deed or of expiration of redemption period, where a statute makes tax deed conclusive evidence of matters preliminary to its issuance or limits attack thereon to specific grounds or exempts deed from attack for procedural irregularities or omissions, 134 A.L.R. 796.
Statutory limitation of period for attack on tax deed as affected by failure to comply with statutory requirement as to notice before tax deed, 5 A.L.R.2d 1021.
Right of interested party receiving due notice of tax sale or of right to redeem to assert failure or insufficiency of notice to other interested party, 45 A.L.R.4th 447.