How Vermont Tax Sales Work

In Vermont the town sells the property itself, and counties play no part in the sale. The collector of taxes in each town or city levies on delinquent real estate and auctions it for cash to the highest bidder under 32 V.S.A. 5252 to 5255. The owner, a mortgagee or a lienholder then has one year to redeem. If nobody does, the collector executes a deed to the buyer. Three details stand out: a debt floor before any sale can start, a redemption charge that counts every part month as a whole one, and no statute on who keeps the surplus.

Town collectors and notice channels sit on the Vermont tax sales hub, and how to buy at a Vermont tax sale walks the buyer's sequence. If the redeemable deed model is new to you, tax liens compared to tax deeds explains where it sits, and the redeemable deed states table shows who else uses it.

Step 1: Find the town that runs the sale

Vermont's 14 counties do not collect property tax or hold tax sales. Each town or city collector sells for its own municipality, and the supervisor of an unorganized town or gore does the same there under 4966. The Vermont counties pages group towns by county for convenience, but the seller is always the town. No state office assigns dates or publishes a calendar.

With selectboard approval a collector may hire legal help to prepare and run a sale (5258), so some towns sell through a law firm. One firm's notice often lists several towns side by side. A date on that notice belongs only to the town named against it, so confirm it with that town before you plan around it.

Step 2: A sale needs a debt floor and a repayment offer

Each municipality votes its own payment date or installments. If the town has voted to charge interest, overdue tax carries up to 1 percent a month for the first three months and up to 1.5 percent a month after that. The tax is a first lien on the real estate, ahead of mortgages and other encumbrances, from the day the grand list is filed with the town clerk (5061).

Next comes the gate. Under 5252 a collector may not levy until the owner owes at least $1,500 and has been delinquent for more than one year. The collector must also consult the owner and offer one written repayment plan, which the owner declined, left unanswered for 30 days, or broke.

2026 Act 170 added an exception that took effect July 1, 2026. The $1,500 floor does not apply to a parcel with no dwelling habitable year-round that is not declared as a homestead. The one-year delinquency test still applies.

Step 3: Read the levy and the notice of sale

Once the conditions are met, the collector records the warrant, a tax bill extract, the land description and a levy statement in the town clerk's land records. The sale is advertised three weeks in a row in a newspaper circulating in the vicinity, with the last notice at least 10 days before the sale. It is also posted in a public place in the town and mailed by certified mail to the owner and to mortgagees and lienholders of record at least 30 days out.

A published date is not final. The owner can pay until the day of sale, so many listed parcels drop off before bidding starts.

Several recorded steps look like a sale and are not one. The treasurer's warrant against delinquent taxpayers and the collector's annual delinquent list are collection lists. The collector's return of sale and the list of lands not redeemed describe sales already held. A court foreclosure of the tax lien under 5061 ends in a commissioner's sale approved by the Superior Court, which is a separate process. The investor auction is the collector's sale under 5252 to 5255.

Step 4: Bid on price, and read the town's terms

The property is sold to pay the taxes, costs and fees due (5254), so the amount due works as the opening figure. Allowed costs are listed in 5258 and include levy and recording fees, notice and publication costs, securing costs, legal costs the selectboard authorizes, and a collector's fee. The owner may ask in writing, at least 24 hours before the sale, that only a certified subdividable portion be sold.

If no bid equals the tax and costs, the town may buy the parcel itself under 5259. That is not an investor sale, and the parcel stays redeemable for a year.

Deposit and payment rules are local. The state record reads: No statute sets a deposit or registration requirement. The statutory return form records the sale as made 'for cash' to the highest bidder (§ 5255). Each town sets its own payment terms; read them in the town's notice.

No statute provides for online sales. Sales happen in person at a public place in the town, usually the town office.

Step 5: The return is a monthly rate on the whole price

A redeeming party pays the sum the land sold for plus 1 percent a month from the day of sale to the day of payment (5260). A fraction of a month counts as a full month. That base is the whole price, overbid included, and the principal comes back to you on redemption.

Let's break down the yield. The rate annualizes to 12%, and the window is one year, so a redeemed parcel returns about that share of the price and no more. One redeemed in its first week still pays a full month. Bidders compete on price with no rate to bid down, so an overbid earns the same monthly rate as the rest of the price. The risk in an overbid sits in the unredeemed case, covered below.

A parcel nobody redeems pays no interest. You take the deed instead. Model both outcomes in the tax lien yield calculator, which rounds elapsed time up to whole months for Vermont.

Step 6: Wait out the redemption window

The window in one line: 1 year from the day of sale. The owner, a lienholder or a mortgagee, or their representatives or assigns, may redeem by paying the collector who made the sale. The collector pays the money over to you on demand, and no deed is made.

Between 90 and 120 days before the year ends, the collector must send the owner a certified-mail warning, and post it, stating the last day and the amount due. Date your plans from that notice and check them with the redemption deadline calculator. For how this window compares with other states, see redemption periods explained.

No statute gives the buyer possession during the redemption year. Do not plan on entering or renting the property.

Step 7: The collector's deed

If the year passes without redemption, the collector executes a deed to the buyer (5261). No court petition is required. Within 30 days the collector also deposits a list of lands not redeemed with the town clerk, though a missed filing does not affect your title (5262).

The deed conveys title against the person whose tax it was sold for and those claiming under that person. Because the tax lien ranks ahead of mortgages, and mortgagees and lienholders of record received notice and a chance to redeem, their interests are the ones to confirm in the land records. Two one-year limits help resale. An action to recover land from a grantee who holds a recorded deed, has been in open possession and has paid the taxes must be brought within one year after it accrues (5263). A taxpayer's challenge to the collector's acts must come within one year from the levy (5294).

One trap: land sold for unpaid personal property tax is sold subject to homestead rights and all existing liens (5257). Read what survives a tax deed and quiet title after a tax deed before you price a resale.

The surplus question is open

No Vermont statute says what happens to the part of a winning bid above the taxes, costs and fees when the property is not redeemed. Sections 5251 to 5263 are silent. 2024 Act 106 created a working group to recommend whether an owner should recoup equity above the tax debt, and no change had been enacted as of the 2026 session. Tyler v. Hennepin County (2023) bears on this question. Ask the town how it handles excess proceeds before you bid above the amount due, and see tax deed surplus funds for how other states handle the same money.

No over-the-counter route

Vermont has no over-the-counter sale of liens or parcels. A parcel that draws no sufficient bid may go to the town at the sale, subject to the same redemption, and any later sale is the town's own property disposal. See over-the-counter tax liens for states that do offer one.

Putting it together

Vermont rewards the buyer who tracks individual towns and reads each notice. Confirm every date with the town named on it, expect withdrawals up to sale day, and settle the surplus question with the town before overbidding. Work through due diligence before a tax sale on every parcel before you bid.