New York Laws
Title 5 - Environmental Restoration Projects
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.