republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/151/hb-159.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SALES OF REAL ESTATE MADE BY A SHERIFF.	This act modifies the locations at which sheriff’s sales may be conducted to provide the sheriffs with needed flexibility and to modernize the sheriff’s sale process. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has revealed substantial inflexibility in 10 Del. C. § 4974 as currently adopted, forcing the sheriff of each of the three counties to either hold sheriff’s sales outdoors, find non-governmental venues in which to hold sheriff’s sales or cancel sheriff’s sales. Additionally, the New Castle County Sheriff is considering using an online auction process to conduct sheriff’s sales, as other counties throughout the United States have done, but § 4974 as currently adopted does not permit online sheriff’s sales. Finally, this act removes uncertainty regarding the meaning of the term “public building” as currently used in § 4974 by adopting a definition that is consistent with the Delaware Supreme Court’s definition of that term in Moore v. Wilmington Housing Authority, 619 A.2d 1166, 1174-75 (Del. 1993).	us/states/de	Delaware General Assembly	151	HB 159	Delaware HB 159 (151)	bill		enacted	John L. Mitchell Nicole Poore Sherry Dorsey Walker Stephanie L. Hansen	2	9	2	2021-04-27	2021-09-15	openstates	ocd-bill/13d57802-bcf7-4c5d-9332-9d83d1d3b47f	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=68631	c3d183d072768a81342339b1a2db380d273d62ebf7690223ac404f71896e6294	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-de

Delaware HB 159 (151) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 10 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SALES OF REAL ESTATE MADE BY A SHERIFF.

This act modifies the locations at which sheriff’s sales may be conducted to provide the sheriffs with needed flexibility and to modernize the sheriff’s sale process. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has revealed substantial inflexibility in 10 Del. C. § 4974 as currently adopted, forcing the sheriff of each of the three counties to either hold sheriff’s sales outdoors, find non-governmental venues in which to hold sheriff’s sales or cancel sheriff’s sales. Additionally, the New Castle County Sheriff is considering using an online auction process to conduct sheriff’s sales, as other counties throughout the United States have done, but § 4974 as currently adopted does not permit online sheriff’s sales. Finally, this act removes uncertainty regarding the meaning of the term “public building” as currently used in § 4974 by adopting a definition that is consistent with the Delaware Supreme Court’s definition of that term in Moore v. Wilmington Housing Authority, 619 A.2d 1166, 1174-75 (Del. 1993).

Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. Bill Text (committee substitute) — source
2. HA 1 to HB 159 (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• 2/3 — 21–0 (pass) · upper
• SM — 40–0 (pass) · lower

Sponsors

• John L. Mitchell — primary (person)
• Nicole Poore — primary (person)
• Sherry Dorsey Walker — primary (person)
• Stephanie L. Hansen — primary (person)
• Bruce C. Ennis — cosponsor (person)
• Kyle Evans Gay — cosponsor (person)
• Laura V. Sturgeon — cosponsor (person)
• Ruth Briggs King — cosponsor (person)

Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

• 2021-04-27 Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House introduction, referral-committee
• 2021-05-19 Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 2 Favorable, 6 On Its Merits committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2021-06-14 Amendment HA 1 to HB 159 - Introduced and Placed With Bill amendment-introduction
• 2021-06-17 Amendment HA 1 to HB 159 - Passed In House by Voice Vote amendment-passage
• 2021-06-17 Passed By House. Votes: 40 YES 1 ABSENT passage
• 2021-06-17 Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate introduction, referral-committee
• 2021-06-23 Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in Senate with 5 On Its Merits committee-passage
• 2021-06-29 Passed By Senate. Votes: 21 YES passage
• 2021-09-15 Signed by Governor executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/13d57802-bcf7-4c5d-9332-9d83d1d3b47f. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).