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From Your OLTA Education Committee
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by Joy Scheller, Committee Member
For many there are two important days of the year to watch out for — April 15 Tax Day and your birthday (none of us can stand getting older). This can also be true for watching when new laws come into effect — and it won't be those same infamous dates. If not enhanced by an emergency clause, many laws will become effective on July 1 or on November 1 of the calendar year of passage, depending on various factors. To keep from getting caught behind the times, you should stay up-to-date on pending legislation and/or make yourself a tickler calendar for upcoming changes that will affect your business.
OLTA and various underwriters will try to keep you updated when possible, but you may need to create your own method of knowing when the winds have changed. Discovering you should have taken a different action after the fact may be too late to get you out of a jam. It might be helpful if you instigate your method as soon as possible as it seems that some personnel are often six months or more behind the times when a change in the laws are discussed.
One way you can keep updated is by checking the Oklahoma Session Laws at the website of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Each year the session laws are entered as the bills are passed into law. You can search by various methods depending on the amount of information you have and under the overall "legal research" area of the website you can do a topical search if you have heard of a change, but don't know the title from the statutes, etc. Also, if you search the website for the statutes and the change you heard of doesn't appear, it's a good idea to search the session laws as you will generally find it there. (The website also gives attorney general opinions and, for a short while after publication, Supreme Court decisions.) Here are some of the recent changes that affect our industry.
Hopefully, everyone has the first three in play in their daily operations:
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Effective Date
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OK STATUTE
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Brief Description
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11/1/01
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68§221 et seq
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Tax Warrants released by Operation of Law (10 years after filing if not refiled - refiling for additional 10 years)
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11/1/01
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46§301
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Unenforceable Mortgages now 7 years from maturing
date (See statutes for prior to effective date rules)
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11/1/02
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12§735
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Judgment Duration date changed - Now 5 years after filing
with the court. - doesn't apply against municipalities or to
child support judgments.
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5/13/03 (Emergency)
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11§2001, 21-103
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Annexation by Cities
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5/16/03 (Emergency)
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43§2001, 105
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Amending form and language in Dissolution of Marriage (formerly Divorce)
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5/29/03 (Emergency)
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11§2001, 22-129
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Special Assessments OR Abatement Liens to a municipality,
39-104 excepts property of any religious organization used
primarily for religious purposes
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7/1/03
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52§318.10
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Prohibiting habitable structures within 125' radius of wellbore of active well; 50' radius from any surface equipment
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7/1/03
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64§2001, 92
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Sales of oil and gas leases by Commissioners of the Land Office
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11/1/03
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68§3105
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Disabled protected from forced sale of property
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11/1/03
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42§2001, 98
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Changes on m/m or storage lien on Manufactured Housing
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11/1/03
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19§288.3
42§2001, 147.1
68§2001, 3104
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File Plats electronically at option of County Assessor
Bonds on Mechanics and Materialman's Lien - Cash deposits forfeit to County General Fund after 10 years
Tax Warrants on delinquent personal taxes (All three [and many others] part of Senate Bill No. 534)
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1/1/03
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49§2001, 1
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Notary Public - Felony conviction grounds for removal - limitation on actions relating to immigration, naturalization and citizenship
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11/1/03
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60§2001, 833
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Residential Property Condition Disclosure Act (added "existence of prior manufacturing of methamphetamine" as required disclosure)
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11/1/03
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11§2001, 22-116
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Municipal jurisdiction over real property and navigable streams
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1/1/04
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60§2001, 2887
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Ad Valorem Tax Exemptions (changes on nonprofit or charitable institutions)
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