Form of notice of foreclosure of right to redeem; service; time; return and record; waiver.

(b) 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.

(c) 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.

(d) 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.

(e) 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. History. 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. JUDICIAL DECISIONS Constitutionality. — Notice to persons outside the county under O.C.G.A. § 48-3-9(b) and subsections (b) and (c) of O.C.G.A. § 48-4-46 are not in accord with the requirements of due process because an owner of a security deed or mortgage who lives outside the county in which the land is located will only receive published notice of the foreclosure of the right to redeem. Funderburke v. Kellet, 257 Ga. 822, 364 S.E.2d 845, 1988 Ga. LEXIS 65 (1988). It is not presumed that the General Assembly intended to enable a tax sale purchaser to forego any methods of notice of foreclosure of the right to redeem which might be required by the due process clause, and the words “for any reason” in O.C.G.A. § 48-4-46(c) are construed to mean that notice by publication is permissible only if a sheriff’s inability to effect personal service satisfies the constitutional mandate of due process. Hamilton v. Renewed Hope, Inc., 277 Ga. 465, 589 S.E.2d 81, 2003 Ga. LEXIS 999 (2003). Responsibility of purchasers. — Purchasers of a business were required to establish a fund sufficient to cover unpaid taxes regardless of the existence of other claims superior to the state tax execution. Collins v. Lesters, Inc., 225 Ga. App. 405, 484 S.E.2d 62, 1997 Ga. App. LEXIS 393 (1997), cert. denied, No. S97C1091, 1997 Ga. LEXIS 677 (Ga. June 27, 1997). No record of successful completion of foreclosure of redemption rights. — Buyer’s claim of foreclosure of all rights to redeem property purchased by the buyer at a tax sale failed because the county real estate records did not contain an entry memorializing successful completion of the foreclosure of the right of redemption as provided by O.C.G.A. § 48-4-46(d); a corporation thus only had notice that the buyer, as a later tax deed grantee, held an inchoate or defeasible title, which could have been perfected on foreclosure of all senior redemption rights. The corporation stood in the position of a good-faith purchaser for value without notice. Washington v. McKibbon Hotel Group, Inc., 284 Ga. 262, 664 S.E.2d 201, 2008 Ga. LEXIS 623 (2008). Failure of redemption.— Award to tax deed purchaser of fee simple title in the properties at issue was upheld because the evidence in the record established that the redeemer failed to tender lawful money prior to the end of the redemption period and that, given the circumstances in the case, that failure was not due to any bad faith on the part of the tax deed purchaser. Moxie Capital, LLC v. Delmont 21, LLC, 363 Ga. App. 152, 869 S.E.2d 127, 2022 Ga. App. LEXIS 56 (2022). Notice posted at residence sufficient. — Appellant did not dispute that notice of the right to redeem was posted on the house, which appellant contended was appellant’s residence and the argument that appellant did not see that notice was of no merit. Francis v. Nr Deed, LLC, 359 Ga. App. 707, 858 S.E.2d 99, 2021 Ga. App. LEXIS 208 (2021). Reasonable efforts at providing notice not established. — When the assignee of a party who purchased certain real property at a tax sale unsuccessfully tried to give the property’s owner notice of the foreclosure of the assignee’s right to redeem the property by personal service at the owner’s address as found in tax and deed records for the subject property, publication could not be constitutionally used to give the owner notice of the foreclosure until further efforts were made to provide the owner notice, absent evidence that other channels of information to locate the owner were not reasonably available, or that use of those channels would have been impractical. Hamilton v. Renewed Hope, Inc., 277 Ga. 465, 589 S.E.2d 81, 2003 Ga. LEXIS 999 (2003). Reasonable efforts at providing notice established. — There was no evidence in the record showing that the notice of barment was ever provided to the sheriff by the purchaser for service; consequently, there was no evidence that the sheriff violated duties regarding service of the notice of barment as alleged. Tharp v. Vesta Holdings I, LLC, 276 Ga. App. 901, 625 S.E.2d 46, 2005 Ga. App. LEXIS 1318 (2005), cert. denied, No. S06C0874, 2006 Ga. LEXIS 272 (Ga. May 8, 2006). More than 30 days notice received.— Because Chapter 13 debtor received more than thirty days notice of the termination date as provided in O.C.G.A. § 48-4-45, the constitutional due process requirements of the statute were met. In re Wood, 632 Bankr. 916, 2021 Bankr. LEXIS 1841 (Bankr. M.D. Ga. 2021). Bankruptcy. — Tax sale purchaser creditor’s motion for relief from the automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. § 362(d) was denied, and the debtor could not yet proceed to foreclose on debtor’s equity of redemption under the barment provisions of O.C.G.A. §§ 48-4-45 and 48-4-46 because the foreclosure was filed after the chapter 13 bankruptcy petition. Greyfield Res., Inc. v. Drummer (In re Drummer), 457 Bankr. 912, 2011 Bankr. LEXIS 3042 (Bankr. N.D. Ga. 2011). 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.