The county collector must publish a delinquent land list and sale notice in a newspaper, certify the publication, and record the publisher’s affidavit; the recorder of deeds may not charge a fee for recording it.
*140.170. County collector to publish delinquent land list — contents — site of sale — expenses — publisher's affidavit to be recorded — exception for certain property, contents of list. — 1. Except for lands described in subsection 7 of this section, the county collector shall cause a copy of the list of delinquent lands and lots to be printed in some newspaper of general circulation published in the county for three consecutive weeks, one insertion weekly, before the sale, the last insertion to be at least fifteen days prior to the fourth Monday in August. 2. In addition to the names of all record owners or the names of all owners appearing on the land tax book it is only necessary in the printed and published list to state in the aggregate the amount of taxes, penalty, interest and cost due thereon, each year separately stated. 3. To the list shall be attached and in like manner printed and published a notice of said lands and lots stating that said land and lots will be sold at public auction to discharge the taxes, penalty, interest, and costs due thereon at the time of sale in or adjacent to the courthouse of such county, on the fourth Monday in August next thereafter, commencing at ten o'clock of said day and continuing from day to day thereafter until all are offered. Such auction may also be conducted by electronic media, including the internet, at the same time and at the discretion of the county collector. 4. The county collector, on or before the day of sale, shall insert at the foot of the list on his or her record a copy of the notice and certify on his or her record immediately following the notice the name of the newspaper of the county in which the notice was printed and published and the dates of insertions thereof in the newspaper. 5. The expense of such printing shall be paid out of the county treasury and shall not exceed the rate provided for in chapter 493, relating to legal publications, notices and advertisements, and the cost of printing at the rate paid by the county shall be taxed as part of the costs of the sale of any land or lot contained in the list. 6. The county collector shall cause the affidavit of the printer, editor or publisher of the newspaper in which the list of delinquent lands and notice of sale was published, as provided by section 493.060, with the list and notice attached, to be recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds of the county, and the recorder shall not charge or receive any fees for recording the same. 7. The county collector may have a separate list of such lands, without legal descriptions or the names of the record owners, printed in a newspaper of general circulation published in such county for three consecutive weeks before the sale of such lands for a parcel or lot of land that: (1) Has an assessed value of one thousand five hundred dollars or less and has been advertised previously; or (2) Is a lot in a development of twenty or more lots and such lot has an assessed value of one thousand five hundred dollars or less. 8. If, in the opinion of the county collector, an adequate legal description of the delinquent land and lots cannot be obtained through researching the documents available through the recorder of deeds, the collector may commission a professional land surveyor to prepare an adequate legal description of the delinquent land and lots in question. The costs of any commissioned land survey deemed necessary by the county collector shall be taxed as part of the costs of the sale of any land or lots contained in the list prepared under this section. (RSMo 1939 § 11126, A.L. 1947 V. II p. 430, A.L. 1955 p. 832, A.L. 1973 H.B. 654, A.L. 1996 H.B. 1469 merged with S.B. 914, A.L. 1997 S.B. 368, A.L. 2003 S.B. 295, A.L. 2010 H.B. 1316, A.L. 2015 H.B. 613, A.L. 2022 H.B. 1606) *Revisor's Note: This section was declared unconstitutional in Byrd, et al. v. State of Missouri, et al. (see 2023 annotation below). (2023) The inclusion of Section 67.2300 in H.B. 1606 from 2022 declared unconstitutional as violating the single subject rule of Article III, § 23 of the Missouri Constitution. The remaining provisions of H.B. 1606 could not be severed and the bill is declared invalid in its entirety. Byrd, et al. v. State of Missouri, et al., 679 S.W.3d 492 (Mo.banc).