§ 34.045.Conveyance of Title After Sale

The conveyance, and the words describing what passes are the important part.

When the sale has been made and its terms complied with, the officer shall execute and deliver to the purchaser a conveyance of all the right, title, interest, and claim that the defendant in execution had in the property sold.

What passes is the debtor’s interest and nothing more. An execution sale is not a guarantee of good title; it transfers whatever the debtor owned, subject to whatever encumbered it.

So a purchaser takes subject to prior liens, easements and restrictions, and a purchaser who does not examine the title before bidding may acquire an equity worth little.

The duty is conditional on the terms being complied with. An execution sale is a cash transaction, and a bidder who does not pay gets no deed.

"Shall execute and deliver" makes the conveyance a duty rather than a discretion once payment is made — the officer cannot decline because of second thoughts about the price or the buyer.

Subsection (b) covers the purchaser who dies before the deed is executed. Where the purchaser complied with the terms of the sale but died, the officer shall execute the conveyance to the purchaser, and it has the same effect as if executed in the purchaser’s lifetime.

Conveying to a dead person is deliberate. Title vests as of the purchase, so the property passes through the purchaser’s estate to their heirs or devisees rather than reverting or requiring a new sale.

The alternative would be unworkable. An officer would have to determine who the successors are, which is a probate question the officer has no means to answer.