Answer; offer of redemption; hearing

[ First paragraph effective until August 5, 2025. For text effective August 5, 2025, see below.]

  Section 68. Any person claiming an interest, on or before the return day or within such further time as may on motion be allowed by the court, shall, if he desires to redeem, file an answer setting forth his right in the land, and an offer to redeem upon such terms as may be fixed by the court. Thereupon the court shall hear the parties, and may in any case in its discretion make a finding allowing the party to redeem, within a time fixed by the court, upon payment to the petitioner of an amount sufficient to cover the original sum, costs, interest at the time rate of sixteen per cent per annum and all subsequent taxes, cost and interest to which the petitioner may be entitled under sections sixty-one and sixty-two, together with the costs of the proceeding and such counsel fee as the court deems reasonable. The court may impose such other terms as justice and the circumstances warrant.

[ First paragraph as amended by 2025, 14, Sec. 24 effective August 5, 2025. For text effective until August 5, 2025, see above.]

  Any person claiming an interest, on or before the return day or within such further time as may on motion be allowed by the court, shall, if he desires to redeem, file an answer setting forth his right in the land, and an offer to redeem upon such terms as may be fixed by the court. Thereupon the court shall hear the parties, and may in any case in its discretion make a finding allowing the party to redeem, within a time fixed by the court, upon payment to the petitioner of an amount sufficient to cover the original sum, costs, interest at the time rate of 8 per cent per annum and all subsequent taxes, cost and interest to which the petitioner may be entitled under sections sixty-one and sixty-two, together with the costs of the proceeding and such counsel fee as the court deems reasonable. The court may impose such other terms as justice and the circumstances warrant.

  If the land has been divided by sale, mortgage, upon a petition for partition or otherwise and such division has been duly recorded in the registry of deeds, the court may permit redemption of any of the portions into which the land has been divided, upon such terms as it may deem just and equitable toward all parties and may make a decree under section sixty-nine barring redemption of the remaining portions.