Before Chief Justice Pickering and Justices Hardesty and Cherry. Opinion by Chief Justice Pickering.
In this appeal, the Court considered two issues: (1) the validity of a nonjudicial foreclosure sale when a delinquent-tax certificate or a tax deed encumbers the property; and (2) the ability of the purchaser of such property at the foreclosure sale to redeem the property from a county treasurer. The Court held that a delinquent-tax certificate does not prevent nonjudicial foreclosure because ownership of a property does not transfer when a delinquent-tax certificate issues. Ownership does not even transfer after the two-year statutory period passes without redemption of the property and a county treasurer issues a tax deed of the property. Rather, ownership of a property encumbered by a delinquent-tax certificate or a tax deed remains with the parties who otherwise hold an interest in the property. That interest does not extinguish until “the county gives notice of sale or otherwise finally disposes of the property.” The Court then held that a party who purchases a property at foreclosure sale may redeem it from a county treasurer. The Court clarified that the language in NRS 107.080(5), which states that the purchase at a nonjudicial foreclosure sale is without the right of redemption, prevents a debtor from exercising a right of redemption against the purchaser, not a purchaser from later redeeming the property from the county. Affirmed. (Chris Stanko, Summer Law Clerk in the Reno office of McDonald Carano Wilson.)
