N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law § 56-0508: Foreclosure of a tax lien

§ 56-0508. Foreclosure of a tax lien.

Notwithstanding any general, special or local law or ordinance to the

contrary:

1. upon the commencement of a proceeding to foreclose a tax lien, the

taxing district bringing the proceeding or any taxing district other

than the one foreclosing the tax lien, having any right, title, or

interest in, or lien upon, any parcel described in the petition of

foreclosure may upon twenty days notice to all parties having any right,

title, or interest in, or lien upon such parcel, move, at a special term

in the court in which the foreclosure proceeding was brought, for an

order granting such taxing district the temporary incidents of ownership

of such parcel for the sole purpose of entering the parcel and

conducting an environmental restoration investigation project upon such

parcel.

2. unless prior to the return date of the motion brought pursuant to

this section the parcel has been redeemed by a party having the right of

redemption, the court shall enter an order granting such relief to such

taxing district, or, if more than one taxing district applies for such

right, to the taxing district which the court determines has the

greatest public interest, but, where possible and proper, preferences

for such relief should be accorded first to cities and villages, second

to towns, and third to counties. Such order shall be granted upon such

terms and conditions as the court shall deem just and proper to permit

the environmental investigation to go on unhindered as well as to

protect the interests of all other parties having a right, title, or

interest in such parcel. Such order shall act as a stay to the

foreclosure action on such parcel until the environmental restoration

investigation project has been completed and the final investigation

report filed with the court pursuant to subdivision four of this section

or such other time as the court may deem proper, and particularly upon a

finding by the court that the investigation has not been carried out in

an expeditious manner.

3. such temporary incidents of ownership by such taxing district shall

also qualify it as being the owner of such property to be eligible for

funding from the state of New York for such environmental restoration

investigation project under this article or for such funding from any

source pursuant to any other state, federal, or local law, but such

incidents of ownership shall not be sufficient to qualify it as the

owner of such property for the purposes of holding it wholly or

partially liable for any damages, past, present, or future from any

release of any hazardous material, substance, or contaminant into the

air, ground, or water, unless such release was caused by such taxing

district.

4. within thirty days of the completion of the environmental

restoration investigation project and the receipt by the taxing

jurisdiction of the final report of such investigation, such taxing

jurisdiction shall file such report with the court on notice to the

court and all other parties of record, and the stay of the foreclosure

shall be lifted (unless lifted earlier by a prior court order), and all

incidents of temporary ownership of the taxing jurisdiction that was

awarded such taxing district, except any right for the environmental

restoration investigation project to be funded, shall cease to exist,

and nothing in this subdivision shall preclude the taxing jurisdiction

that conducted the environmental restoration investigation project or

the taxing jurisdiction that commenced the foreclosure action, if it is

a different taxing jurisdiction than the taxing jurisdiction which

conducted the investigation, from withdrawing the parcel from

foreclosure pursuant to section eleven hundred thirty-eight of the real

property tax law.

5. all costs associated with any environmental restoration

investigation project conducted pursuant to the authority of this

section shall be added to the taxes owed to, and the tax lien of, the

taxing district that undertook the environmental restoration

investigation project pursuant to this section.