When a tract or lot becomes the property of different owners in two or more parcels, subsequent to any general reassessment of real estate in the city or county in which such tract or lot is situated each of the two or more parcels shall be assessed and shown separately upon the land books, as required by law. The commissioner of the revenue, in assessing each lot or parcel, shall assess the same at its fair market value as of January 1 of the year next succeeding the year in which the tract or lot of land becomes the property of several owners, without regard to the value at which such tract of land was assessed as a whole, but with regard to other assessments of lots, pieces or parcels of land in the city or county. Such assessment shall stand until the next general reassessment of real estate in the city or county. Failure of the owner or person dividing and selling the land to record a plat thereof shall not relieve the commissioner of the revenue of the responsibility for assessing or reassessing any such tract of land when divided as provided for in this section.

Code 1950, § 58-773; 1954, c. 655; 1984, c. 675.