24.24 Effect of certificate.

(1) Except when voided by forfeiture under s. 24.28, a certificate of sale issued under s. 24.17 entitles the purchaser, or the purchaser's heirs or assigns, to all the rents, benefits, and provisions of any lease existing on the lands described in the certificate at the time of the land purchase and accruing after the purchase. The certificate of sale is sufficient evidence of title and vests in the purchaser, or the purchaser's heirs and assigns, the same rights of possession, enjoyment, descent, transmission, and alienation of the lands described in the certificate and the same remedies for the protection of those rights against all persons, except the state, that the purchaser would possess if the purchaser were the owner in fee of the described lands.

(2) Notwithstanding sub. (1), a certificate of sale does not confer the right to cut down, destroy, dig up, or carry off any standing wood or timber or any mineral located on the lands described in the certificate without the written consent of the board, except as follows:

(a) Wood or timber may be cut when it is to be exclusively used in the erection of fences or buildings on the described lands.

(b) Wood or timber may be cut for necessary firewood for the household use of the persons actually occupying the described lands.

(c) Wood or timber may be cut when done in good faith for the actual and fair improvement of the described lands for cultivation.

(3) Notwithstanding sub. (2) (c), no cutting of wood or timber shall be deemed to have been done for the purposes of cultivation unless the entire surface from which the wood and timber is cut was at the time further prepared for cultivation by thoroughly clearing all brush and growing wood of every kind, except that shade or ornamental trees on not more than 10 adjoining acres selected for building purposes, and trees valuable for saw or rail timber, not to exceed 20 upon each acre, may be left standing.

(4) Except as provided in subs. (2) and (3), any wood, timber, or mineral cut, dug out, or removed from any land described in a certificate of sale shall remain the property of the state.

History: 1991 a. 316; 2005 a. 149.