Erie County, NY tax sales
Tax Sale Atlas maps the Erie County, NY tax sale, one of 3,105 counties in 49 states. New York sells the deed itself, so no statutory investor interest rate applies. Sale office, calendar and list locations read from the county’s own official pages on Sep 28, 2026.
How tax deed sales work in Erie County, seat of Buffalo: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.
New to tax sales? Read how New York tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.
- Next sale
- One in-person public auction in late summer.
- Format
- In person
- County office
- (716) 858-8333
On this page
How Erie County sells delinquent taxes
No tax lien certificate sale
under Article 11. The county or other tax district keeps the delinquent tax lien and enforces it itself; no tax lien certificate is sold to individual investors. RPTL 1190 lets a tax district contract to sell liens in bulk to the state Municipal Bond Bank Agency or one of its tax lien entities, which is a negotiated contract with a state agency, not an investor sale. New York City (Bronx, Kings, New York, Queens and Richmond counties) sells tax liens under N.Y.C. Admin. Code 11-319 only to a single authorized buyer, a trust, and not to the general public. Nassau County is the notable exception: it enforces taxes under its own county administrative code and its Treasurer sells tax liens at a public online auction each February.
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Erie County Director of Real Property Tax Services, acting as Referee
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- One in-person public auction in late summer.
When it runs
Registration and deposit
Pre-register online on the Real Property Tax Services website during the pre-registration window (July 20 to August 19 for the 2026 sale), or register at the auction from 8:00 a.m. Bring valid identification, a telephone number, an email address and the name in which you want to take title. Bidders must be current on all taxes, water, sewer and other municipal obligations anywhere in Erie County, and the current owner of a foreclosed parcel may not bid on it.
Sale format and venue
Erie County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Erie County tax sale 2026 searches, use the county-run sources below rather than a copied parcel list, and confirm the parcel, registration cutoff, deposit, and payment deadline against the county before you bid. If the parcels on this list are vacant land rather than houses, what buying land at a tax sale hands you is the place to start.
Get the advertised list
Use Notices of Sale (property lists) for In Rem 172 and 173, Erie County Real Property Tax Services for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Ask the county office how and when to register; many counties close registration days or weeks before the sale.Sale day
One in-person public auction in late summer. The sale is live and in person; there is no online bidding platform. Confirm the venue and hour with the county office before you go.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use Erie County Director of Real Property Tax Services, acting as Referee as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Erie County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from Notices of Sale (property lists) for In Rem 172 and 173, Erie County Real Property Tax Services. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
Pre-register online on the Real Property Tax Services website during the pre-registration window (July 20 to August 19 for the 2026 sale), or register at the auction from 8:00 a.m. Bring valid identification, a telephone number, an email address and the name in which you want to take title. Bidders must be current on all taxes, water, sewer and other municipal obligations anywhere in Erie County, and the current owner of a foreclosed parcel may not bid on it.
Check the state rules that change the bid
Read the New York due-diligence checklist before bidding. Redemption, liens that survive a tax deed, title cleanup, and payment deadlines can change what a parcel is worth. Which liens survive is state law, so read what survives a tax deed in New York before you price the title work.Set a walk-away number
Work out what the parcel is actually worth with the rural land value estimator, then turn it into a ceiling with the tax deed max-bid calculator.
Over-the-counter (leftover) purchases
unsold properties
New York counties keep no statewide over-the-counter list. A county may sell a parcel left unsold at auction by negotiated or sealed-bid sale, but any sale other than a public auction to the highest bidder needs approval by the county's governing body. Whether this county holds any such inventory must be confirmed with the county treasurer.
New to this path? Read how over-the-counter purchases work. Every state has its own name for what goes unsold, so check what New York calls its leftover tax-sale inventory.
Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.
County offices
Tax sale office
Erie County Real Property Tax Services
Edward A. Rath County Office Building, 95 Franklin Street, Room 100, Buffalo, NY 14202
Official websiteCounty notes
- The 2026 auction on August 26, 2026 covered In Rem 172 and In Rem 173 parcels only; In Rem 174 began May 5, 2026, and its parcels go to a later auction.
- Closings are by appointment at Lippes Mathias LLP, 50 Fountain Plaza, Suite 1700, Buffalo. A $75 fee applies to change the name taking title before closing.
- A buyer may not enter the property, remove belongings, charge rent or evict occupants until the deed is recorded and the sale has closed.
- City of Buffalo parcels with city tax arrears are sold at the city's own In Rem auction, not the county sale.
New York rules
- Redemption
- In Article 11 jurisdictions redemption runs before the public ever buys. The owner or anyone with an interest can redeem by paying the enforcing officer the delinquent tax liens plus all charges, until the redemption period expires: two years after the lien date by default, or a later date if the published notice of foreclosure names one. A tax district may by local law extend the period for residential or farm property to three or four years, and for residential property of certain deployed military members to four or five years, or shorten it to one year for residential property found vacant and abandoned and placed on a municipal roll. When one tax district holds several liens on a parcel they are redeemed newest first, and foreclosure continues while the oldest lien is unpaid. Anyone who neither redeems nor answers is barred, and the final judgment extinguishes every equity of redemption, so a buyer at the county's later auction takes property no longer subject to redemption. Suffolk County, which enforces under its own tax act, instead records a tax deed and accepts redemption applications within six months of recording.
- Deed deposit
- No statewide deposit amount. Deposits, bidder registration deadlines, buyer premiums and accepted payment forms are set in each county's terms of sale or the auction contractor's terms; read them before bidding.
- Surplus proceeds
- New York returns surplus to the former owner and lienholders. Under RPTL 1196, added by L.2024, c.55, Part BB after Tyler v. Hennepin County, the enforcing officer must determine within 45 days after the sale whether a surplus exists by subtracting the taxes, interest, penalties and charges (including the foreclosure cost allowance in RPTL 1102) from the price paid at a public sale, or from the property's full value where the sale was not public. Any surplus is paid into court with a report, and the former owner is notified within ten days. Under RPTL 1197 anyone with an interest just before the judgment may claim a share, adjudicated as in a mortgage foreclosure under RPAPL Article 13. At a public auction the price paid is accepted as full value, so no claim can be brought that the price was too low. For residential property with no claim from the former homeowner, the proceeding stays open at least three years. Unclaimed surplus goes to the tax district to reduce its levy. The buyer's price is not reduced by any of this.
A tax deed does not convey marketable title. Most buyers file a quiet title action before they can resell or insure the property. See the due diligence guide.
Frequently asked questions
Does Erie County, New York sell tax liens or tax deeds?
How often does Erie County hold tax deed sales?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Where can I find the Erie County tax sale list?
Verified Sep 28, 2026 against official county and state sources.
Tax Sale Atlas publishes educational information about public tax sale processes. This is not legal, financial, or investment advice. Rules, dates, and fees change; confirm with the county office before you bid.
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