Maine Revised Statutes Title 36 Sec. 557-A – Assessment; unknown owner
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Terms Used In Maine Revised Statutes Title 36 Sec. 557-A
- Notice: means written notification served personally, sent by certified mail or sent by first-class mail to the last known address of the person for whom the notification is intended. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 36 Sec. 111
- Person: means an individual, firm, partnership, association, society, club, corporation, financial institution, estate, trust, business trust, receiver, assignee or any other group or combination acting as a unit, the State or Federal Government or any political subdivision or agency of either government. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 36 Sec. 111
- Property: shall be construed to mean both real estate and personal property. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 36 Sec. 501
- Real estate: includes lands and all tenements and hereditaments connected therewith, and all rights thereto and interests therein. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 1 Sec. 72
- Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
- Return: means any document, digital file or electronic data transmission containing information required by this Title to be reported to the State Tax Assessor. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 36 Sec. 111
- Tax: means the total amount required to be paid, withheld and paid over or collected and paid over with respect to estimated or actual tax liability under this Title, any credit or reimbursement allowed or paid pursuant to this Title that is recoverable by the assessor and any amount assessed by the assessor pursuant to this Title, including any interest or penalties provided by law. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 36 Sec. 111
- Tax collector: shall mean any person chosen, appointed or designated by a municipality or the officers thereof to collect any tax due a municipality; or his successor in office. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 36 Sec. 501
In the case of real property for which no owner is known to the assessors for at least the preceding 20 tax years and for which the assessor has, with reasonable diligence, attempted to determine ownership, the following assessment procedure must be used. [PL 1993, c. 422, §3 (AMD).]
Property of an unknown owner is assessed as other property, except that the owner must be indicated as “unknown.” Additionally, the assessing must be advertised once a week for 3 consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county in which the property is located. The notice must describe the real estate that is being assessed so that a reasonable person may know, with probable certainty, what premises are subject to tax, together with a statement that the property is assessed to an unknown owner as the result of the failure of a reasonable search to ascertain an owner of record. This newspaper publication is sufficient legal notice of that assessment. At the time of this publication, a copy of the same notice must be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, to each abutting property owner. [PL 1993, c. 422, §3 (AMD).]
If the owner of property is still unknown, after use of this notice procedure for assessment purposes, the tax collector and treasurer shall use the same procedure for those notices required under sections 942 and 943. [PL 1993, c. 422, §3 (AMD).]
SECTION HISTORY
PL 1987, c. 617 (NEW). PL 1993, c. 422, §3 (AMD).