Site Tools
Welcome to the State of California

9310-9318 Delinquent List: Publishing Criteria

9310. DATE OF PUBLICATION
The published Property Tax Default (Delinquent) List must be published annually on or before September 8 (Rev. & Tax. Code §3371). Tax collectors who mail notices to assessees of record before June 30 must publish the affidavit and list of delinquent real property on or before September 8 in the year following the date of default. County tax collectors who do not mail notices of delinquency must publish the delinquent list on or before September 8 in the year of default.

If the tax collector mails reminder notices before June 30 and annually sends a redemption notice of prior-year taxes due, he/she may publish delinquent notices only for those properties that have been tax delinquent for three years or more and for which the latest reminder or redemption notice was returned as undeliverable.

9311. MANNER AND PERIOD OF PUBLICATION
The tax collector may have the list published as a single publication (Rev. & Tax. Code §3371 et seq.) or as a divided publication (Rev. & Tax. Code §3381 et seq.).

9312. PUBLISHING IN SINGLE NEWSPAPER
As required by Revenue and Taxation Code section 3373, the Property Tax Default (Delinquent) List must be published in accordance with Government Code section 6063, which requires publication of the notice once a week for three successive weeks in a newspaper regularly published at least once a week. The scheduling of publication dates within the three-week period must be such that there are at least five days between each of the respective publication dates.

The period of notice commences on the first day of publication and terminates at the end of the 21st day, including therein the first day.

Publication must be in a newspaper that is regularly published within the county and is a newspaper of general circulation as defined in Government Code section 6000 et seq. The notice should appear in a newspaper that would most adequately notify the property owners. If more than one edition is printed on the days of publication, the notice must appear in each edition.

9313. COST OF PUBLICATION
The cost for publication in a single newspaper shall not exceed the rate fixed by the board of supervisors for other county advertising (Rev. & Tax. Code §3373).

9314. COST OF PREPARING THE DELINQUENT LIST
Amounts collected as the cost for preparing the delinquent list shall be distributed to the county general fund. When authorized by the board of supervisors, these amounts shall be distributed to a restricted county fund, to be allocated only for the following purposes: (Rev. & Tax. Code §4656.4)

1) Updating and improving information with respect to delinquent taxes;

2) Redemption systems;

3) Monthly settlements with the auditor, pursuant to Revenue and Taxation Code section 4108; and

4) Collection of taxes by the tax collector.

9315. PUBLISHING IN MORE THAN ONE NEWSPAPER
The Property Tax Default (Delinquent) List may be divided and published in newspapers situated within any of the geographical districts or areas that would most adequately notify property owners. In a general law county, the determination to divide the publication is made by the tax collector. In a charter county, this determination is made by the board of supervisors (Rev. & Tax. Code §3381).

Divided publications shall be made in newspapers that are published not less frequently than once a week (Rev. & Tax. Code §3381) and are of general circulation as defined in Government Code section 6000 et seq. The publication must be made once a week for two successive weeks (Rev. & Tax. Code §3381). The Property Tax Default (Delinquent) List should appear in each edition if more than one edition is printed on the days of publication. When publishing the Property Tax Default (Delinquent) List in more than one newspaper, the tax collector should add a notice of divided publication in each publication. This will ensure that the readers of a newspaper in which the publication appears will understand that it is not the complete Property Tax Default (Delinquent) List and that they may need to view other newspapers to obtain the complete information regarding properties that have become tax-defaulted (see SCO Figure 9.3 and SCO Figure 9.3a).

9316. COST OF PUBLICATION
Annually, the board of supervisors shall award the contracts for the divided Published Delinquent List and determine the rate to be paid. The rate shall be based on a common denominator of measurement for all newspapers and may be graduated according to circulation (Rev. & Tax. Code §3382).

9317. ERRORS IN PUBLICATION
If an error occurs in the first publication, a correction in the remaining publications will not validate the procedure, because the law requires either two (Rev. & Tax. Code §3381) or three (Rev. & Tax. Code §3373; Gov. Code §6063) correct publications (Rev. & Tax. Code §3372).

NOTE: If the first publication carries an error made by the publisher that would invalidate the tax-default, the tax collector should require the publisher to reprint and publish the notice if there is still time to do so on or before September 8.

Government Code section 6066 requires publication once a week for two successive weeks. At least five days must intervene between the respective publication dates, not counting the publication dates themselves.

9318. POSTING OF NOTICE IF NO PUBLICATION
If a newspaper of general circulation, as defined in Government Code section 6000 et seq., does not exist within the county, the notification process shall be accomplished by posting the notice and the list of properties in three public places within the county (Rev. & Tax. Code §3373).