Connecticut tax sale statutes

The governing law

Connecticut sells redeemable deeds, not lien certificates. Each town or city tax collector, after written demand, levies on delinquent real estate and sells it at public auction to the highest bidder, on its own date and often with a hired auctioneer. The winning bidder pays the full bid; the collector signs a collector's deed within two weeks and lodges it unrecorded with the town clerk. For six months from the sale (60 days for abandoned property or property meeting conditions a town sets by ordinance) the taxpayer, a mortgagee or another lienholder may redeem by paying the taxes and charges due at the sale plus interest at 18 percent a year on the buyer's total purchase price. On redemption the buyer receives that payment plus any part of the bid above the amount due, which the town held in escrow. If no one redeems, the deed is recorded and takes full effect without a court action, and the escrowed excess goes first to the owner's other taxes to the town and then to the Superior Court for the former owner and lienholders to claim. Towns may instead sell their tax liens in bulk to a negotiated assignee under 12-195h, and may foreclose liens in court under 12-181; neither is an auction open to individual bidders.