West Virginia Code Chapter 11A. Collection and Enforcement of Property Taxes § 11A-3-49. Purchase by owner or deputy commissioner or other officers prohibited; co-owner free to purchase at sale

(a) It shall be illegal for an owner, in whose name any real estate was certified to the auditor or was subjected to the authority of the auditor because of the nonentry thereof, or his heirs or assigns, or his or their agent, to purchase such real estate at sale provided in section forty-five or forty-eight of this article. No deputy commissioner, sheriff, clerk of the county commission or circuit court, assessor, nor deputy of any of them, shall directly or indirectly become the purchaser, or be interested in the purchase of any real estate at the sale. Any such person or officer so purchasing shall for each offense forfeit one thousand dollars, to be collected as other forfeitures are collected. The sale of any real estate, or the conveyance of such real estate by tax deed, to one of the persons or officers named in this section shall be voidable at the instance of any person having the right to redeem until such real estate reaches the hands of a bona fide purchaser.

(b) Any co-owner, except a coparcener, in the absence of satisfactory proof of a fiduciary relationship, shall be entitled to purchase at the sale for his own account the interest of any, or all, of his co-owners in any real estate, without being required to hold such interest or interests under a constructive trust. There shall be a prima facie presumption against such constructive trust.