§ 9-13-174.When sheriff’s successor empowered to make titles

Sheriffs leave office — by election, resignation, or otherwise — sometimes before finishing the paperwork on a sale they conducted. Without a section like this one, a purchaser could be left holding a completed, paid-for sale with no deed, and no one left in office with authority to sign one.

This section closes that gap by letting the successor sheriff step into the departed sheriff’s shoes for this limited purpose, executing the title in the same manner as if the successor had made the sale personally. The statute does not require any particular reason for the original sheriff’s failure to make titles — any such failure triggers the successor’s authority to act. That authority connects to Code Section 9-13-173’s rule on what a resulting judicial-sale title accomplishes, and to Code Section 9-13-176’s separate rule on what happens when a purchaser waits too long to seek possession, including past a change in officers.