Chapter 60

Section 77A. In case of the sale of land acquired by a city or town through foreclosure under any provision of this chapter, the purchaser shall be required as a condition of the sale to authorize the official or officials executing the deed on behalf of the city or town to recor…

Section 77B. The mayor of any city or the selectmen of any town which holds property acquired by foreclosure of tax titles or acquired under section eighty may appoint a custodian who shall have the care, custody, management and control of all property heretofore or hereafter so …

Section 77C. Cities and towns, acting through their legislative bodies, may accept a deed, in which all persons who have an interest in title join as grantors, in lieu of foreclosure to any parcel of land within the city or town which meet the requirements set forth in this secti…

Section 79. After ninety days from the taking or purchase by a town of any parcels of land for non-payment of taxes, the commissioner may, and on written application of the town treasurer shall, inquire into the value of such parcels and the validity of tax titles held thereon. A…

Section 8. All books kept by the collector, which shall be approved as to form by the commissioner, shall be furnished by, and be the property of, the town, and shall be at all reasonable times open to examination by the auditor of such town or any other agent thereof duly author…

Section 80. If no person bids at such a sale or if no bid deemed adequate by the treasurer is made thereat and if the sale has been adjourned one or more times, the treasurer shall then and there make public declaration of the fact, and if no bid or no bid deemed adequate as afor…

Section 80A. Any person, having a right of redemption or any other interest in the land conveyed or purporting to be conveyed under section seventy-nine or section eighty, upon whom service of the notice of sale provided in said section seventy-nine has been made by registered ma…

Section 80B. The holder of a title acquired under section seventy-nine or eighty, whether acquired before or after the effective date of this section, may file in the land court a petition to establish such title by requiring all persons who would have an interest in the land inv…

Section 80C. When any city or town has conveyed or sold any land under section seventy-nine or section eighty by an instrument in writing conveying or purporting to convey such land, and said instrument is duly recorded in the registry of deeds for the district wherein such land …

Section 81A. Whenever a city or town shall have purchased or taken land for non-payment of taxes under section forty-three or fifty-three, respectively, and the treasurer of said city or town has reason to believe that the buildings located thereon are unoccupied, he shall forthw…

Section 81B. Whenever a city or town shall have purchased or taken land for nonpayment of taxes under section 43 or 53, and the treasurer of the city or town certifies that the redemption amount as determined pursuant to section 62 exceeds the assessed value of the parcel, the tr…

Section 82. If a collector has reasonable cause to believe that the title to land sold for non-payment of taxes or of assessments, a lien for which is enforceable by a sale of land, is invalid by reason of an error, omission or informality in the assessment or sale, he may, withi…

Section 83. If, within thirty days after such notice, such holder of the tax title does not comply therewith, the collector shall cause a copy thereof, with an affidavit by himself or by a disinterested person of the service thereof and of the facts in the case, to be recorded in…

Section 84. If the collector has reasonable cause to believe that a tax title, held by a town under a sale or taking for non-payment of a tax, is invalid by reason of any error, omission or informality in the assessment, sale or taking, he may disclaim and release such title by a…

Section 84A. If a tax title is for any reason adjudged invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the clerk, upon request, shall issue a certificate to that effect. The treasurer of the city or town where the land affected by such a tax title is situated, upon receipt of a rel…

Section 85. A tenant in common or joint tenant, who pays the entire tax assessed upon land held jointly or in common, shall have a lien upon the interest of each of his co-tenants, to secure the payment to him of the proportion of such tax payable by each of said co-tenants respe…

Section 86. Such lien may be enforced in the manner provided in chapter two hundred and fifty-four for enforcing liens on buildings and land under written contracts for the erection, alteration, repair or removal of buildings or structures; but shall be dissolved, unless the pers…

Section 87. A city or town may, by ordinance or by-law, respectively, direct whether its collector shall exercise the power of sale or the power of taking to enforce the lien for taxes; and in default of such ordinance or by-law the collector may exercise either power at his disc…

Section 88. When the tax list and warrant of the assessors is committed to the sheriff or his deputy, he shall forthwith post, in some public place in the town, an attested copy of said list and warrant; and shall make no distress for a tax within thirty days thereafter.

Section 89. If a person pays his tax within said thirty days, the officer shall receive from him for his fees five per cent on the sum assessed; but if a tax remains unpaid after said thirty days, he shall collect it by distress or imprisonment, or by sale of land as a collector …

Section 90. If a city or town appoints its treasurer as collector of taxes, he may issue his warrants to collect to a deputy collector, returnable in sixty days, requiring him to collect any and all taxes due. Such warrants shall be substantially in the same form and shall confer…

Section 91. When any foreign corporation or non-resident person, doing business in the commonwealth, shall for sixty days neglect, refuse or omit to pay a tax lawfully assessed and payable, any court having jurisdiction in equity may on petition of the collector of taxes of the t…

Section 92. Any officer authorized to collect taxes may appoint and remove such deputies as such officer deems expedient. Each deputy so appointed shall keep a cash book, in which such deputy shall enter all sums so collected, specifying the total amount of each tax collected, al…

Section 93. The treasurer or other disbursing officer of any town may, and if so requested by the collector shall, withhold payment of any money payable to any person from whom there are then due taxes, assessments, rates or other charges committed to such collector, which are wh…

Section 94. The aldermen or selectmen may require the collector once in two months to exhibit to them a true account of all money received on the taxes committed to him, and to produce the treasurer's receipts for all money paid into the treasury by him.

Section 95. The collector shall be credited with all sums abated; with all sums committed and thereafter apportioned under section thirteen of chapter eighty; with the amount of all assessments not apportioned to subsequent years which have been committed under section four of ch…

Section 96. If a collector becomes incapacitated by reason of mental illness, absconds or removes from the town or in the judgment of the aldermen or selectmen is about to so remove or is otherwise unable to discharge his duty, or if he refuses on demand to exhibit to the alderme…

Section 97. If a collector ceases to hold the office of collector for any reason, all his accounts, records and papers, including his warrant, which relate to the assessment and collection of taxes in his town shall, forthwith after an audit thereof has been made by a competent a…

Section 98. No action to recover back a tax shall be maintained, except as provided in sections sixty and eighty-five, unless commenced within three months after payment of the tax nor unless such tax is paid either after an arrest of the person paying it, a levy on his goods, a …

Section 99. A collector who neglects or refuses to exhibit accounts or to produce receipts, as required under section ninety-four, shall forfeit to the town two and one half per cent of the sums committed to him for collection.