(a) If, in a suit to collect a delinquent tax, a court renders a judgment for foreclosure of a tax lien on behalf of a taxing unit, any taxing unit that was a party to the judgment may file a petition to vacate the judgment on one or more of the following grounds:
(1) failure to join a person needed for just adjudication under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, including a taxing unit required to be joined under § 33.44(a);
(2) failure to serve a person needed for just adjudication under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, including a taxing unit required to be joined under § 33.44(a);
(3) failure of the judgment to adequately describe the property that is the subject of the suit; or
(4) that the property described in the judgment was subject to multiple appraisals for the tax years included in the judgment.
(b) The taxing unit must file the petition under the same cause number as the delinquent tax suit and in the same court.

Terms Used In Texas Tax Code 33.56

  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. Source: OCC
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Person: includes corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, and any other legal entity. See Texas Government Code 311.005
  • Property: means real and personal property. See Texas Government Code 311.005
  • Rule: includes regulation. See Texas Government Code 311.005
  • Signature: includes the mark of a person unable to write, and "subscribe" includes the making of such a mark. See Texas Government Code 312.011
  • Signed: includes any symbol executed or adopted by a person with present intention to authenticate a writing. See Texas Government Code 311.005
  • Taxing unit: means a county, an incorporated city or town (including a home-rule city), a school district, a special district or authority (including a junior college district, a hospital district, a district created by or pursuant to the Water Code, a mosquito control district, a fire prevention district, or a noxious weed control district), or any other political unit of this state, whether created by or pursuant to the constitution or a local, special, or general law, that is authorized to impose and is imposing ad valorem taxes on property even if the governing body of another political unit determines the tax rate for the unit or otherwise governs its affairs. See Texas Tax Code 1.04
  • Written: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures. See Texas Government Code 311.005

(c) The taxing unit may not file a petition if a tax sale of the property has occurred unless:
(1) the tax sale has been vacated by an order of a court;
(2) the property was bid off to a taxing unit under § 34.01(j) and has not been resold; or
(3) the tax sale or resale purchaser, or the purchaser’s heirs, successors, or assigns, consents to the petition.
(d) Consent of the purchaser to a petition may be shown by:
(1) a written memorandum signed by the purchaser and filed with the court;
(2) the purchaser’s joinder in the taxing unit’s petition;
(3) a statement of the purchaser made in open court on the record in a hearing on the petition; or
(4) the purchaser’s signature of approval to an agreed order to grant the petition.
(e) A copy of the petition must be served in a manner authorized by Rule 21a, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, on each party to the delinquent tax suit.
(f) If the court grants the petition, the court shall enter an order providing that:
(1) the judgment, any tax sale based on that judgment, and any subsequent resale are vacated;
(2) any applicable tax deed or applicable resale deed is canceled;
(3) the delinquent tax suit is revived; and
(4) except in a case in which judgment is vacated under Subsection (a)(4), the taxes, penalties, interest, and attorney’s fees and costs, and the liens that secure each of those items, are reinstated.

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