Richmond Municipal Code Ch. 13.04 General Provisions

This Article establishes the law of this City respecting the subjects to which it relates.

Any action or proceeding commenced or right accrued before this Article takes effect is not affected hereby, but all procedure taken thereon henceforth shall conform to these provisions as far as possible.

If any provision hereof, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder thereof, or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances, is not affected.

Unless the context otherwise requires, the general provision herein set forth govern the construction of this Article.

Chapter and section headings do not in any manner affect the scope, meaning or intent of these provisions.

Whenever any reference is made to any portion of this Article or any other regulation of this City, the reference applies to all amendments and additions thereto now or hereafter made.

(1) CHAPTER means a chapter of this Article, SECTION means a section of this Article, and SUBDIVISION means a subdivision of the section in which what term occurs unless some other section is expressly mentioned.

(2) The present tense includes the past and future tenses, and the future, the present.

(3) The masculine gender includes the feminine and neuter.

(4) The singular number includes the plural, and the plural the singular.

(5) SHALL is mandatory and MAY is permissive.

(6) OATH includes affirmation.

(7) PERSON includes any person, firm, partnership, association, corporation, company, syndicate, estate, trust, business trust, or organization of any kind.

(8) PROPERTY includes all matters and things, real, personal and mixed, capable of private ownership.

(9) REAL ESTATE or REAL PROPERTY includes:

(a) The possession of, claim to, ownership of, or right to the possession of land.

(b) All mines, minerals, and quarries in the land, all standing timber whether or not belonging to the owner of the land, and all rights and privileges appertaining thereto.

(c) Improvements.

(10) IMPROVEMENTS includes:

(a) All buildings, structures, fences and fixtures erected on or affixed to the land.

(b) All fruit, nut bearing, or ornamental trees and vines, not of natural growth, and not exempt from taxation.

(11) PERSONAL PROPERTY includes all property except real estate.

(12) POSSESSORY INTEREST means

(a) The possession of, claim to, or right to the possession of land or improvements, except when resulting from ownership of the land or improvements.

(b) Taxable improvements on tax exempt land. Possessory interest shall not be considered as sufficient security for the payment of any taxes.

(13) STATE ASSESSED PROPERTY means all property required to be assessed by the State Board of Equalization under Section 14 of Article XIII of the Constitution.

(14) ROLL means the entire assessment roll. The SECURED ROLL is that part of the roll containing state assessed property and property the taxes on which are a lien on real property sufficient, in the opinion of the Assessor, to secure payment of the taxes. The remainder of the roll is the UNSECURED ROLL. LOCAL ROLL means all parts of the secured roll and the unsecured roll containing property which it is the City Assessor's duty to assess.

(15) VALUE, FULL CASH VALUE, or CASH VALUE mean the amount at which property would be taken in payment of a just debt from a solvent debtor.

(16) ASSESSEE means the person to whom property or a tax is assessed.

(17) LIEN DATE is the time when taxes for any fiscal year become a lien on property. This time is noon on the first Monday in March preceding the beginning of the fiscal year for which the taxes are to be collected.

(18) ASSESSMENT PERIOD is between the lien date and the end of the regular annual time within which the City Board of Equalization may equalize assessments.

(19) REVENUE DISTRICT means each district in which a different total City tax rate is levied.

(20) AMOUNT OF SOLD TAXES on property which has been sold to the City means the sum of the following amounts:

(a) The amount of taxes which were a lien on the real property at the time of sale.

(b) All other unpaid taxes of every description which were a lien on the property for the year of sale and for each year since the sale, as shown on the rolls. As used in this subdivision ROLLS does not include any roll for which the time of sale to the City is not past.

(21) CURRENT TAXES means taxes which are a lien on property but which are not included in the AMOUNT OF SOLD TAXES as defined above, except that between a lien date and the time in the same calendar year when property is sold to the City for taxes, the taxes becoming a lien on said lien date in said calendar year are not yet CURRENT TAXES.

(22) CURRENT ROLL means the roll containing the property on which current taxes are a lien.

(23) TAX SOLD PROPERTY is real property which has been sold to the City by operation of law for taxes and from which the lien of the taxes for which it was sold has not been removed.

(24) UNSECURED PROPERTY is property:

(a) The taxes on which are not a lien on real property sufficient, in the opinion of the Assessor, to secure payment of the taxes.

(b) The taxes on which were secured by real estate on the lien date and which real estate was later acquired by the United States of America, the State, or by any county, city, school district, or other public agency and the taxes transferred to the unsecured roll.

(25) WRITING includes any form of recorded message capable of comprehension by ordinary visual means. Whenever any notice, report, petition, permit, statement, or record is required by these provisions, it shall be made in writing.

Unless otherwise expressly provided, any notice required to be given to any person by any provision hereof may be given by mail. For service by mail, the notice shall be deposited in the post office, postage paid, addressed to the proper person at his address as shown on any document or record in the matter concerning which the notice is sent, or at his last known address, or, if no address is known, to him in this City.

Whenever it is required by this Article that any publication be made, it shall be made in the official newspaper, a newspaper of general circulation published in this City and holding the contract for the official advertising of the City.

In the assessment, advertisement and sale of real property for taxes, any abbreviations may be used if a written explanation of them appears either;

(a) on each page of the roll, or

(b) in the front of each book of the roll and a reference to said explanation appears on each page of the roll.

If any act is required by this Article to be performed on or before a particular date and the date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the act may be performed on the next business day with the same effect as if performed on the particular date.

No act in all the proceedings for raising revenue by taxation is illegal on account of informality or because not completed within the required time.

Whenever a power is granted to, or a duty imposed on, any person by any of these provisions, it may be exercised or performed by any deputy or person authorized by him, unless it is expressly provided that it shall be exercised in person.

The fiscal year shall begin July 1 and end June 30.

(Source: Ordinance No. 1734)