Heard County, GA tax sales
How tax lien certificate and tax deed sales work in Heard County, seat of Franklin: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.
Verified Jul 27, 2026 against official county and state sources.
New here? Read how Georgia tax sales work, the difference between a lien and a deed, and redemption periods.
How Heard County sells delinquent taxes
Tax certificate sale (lien)
Details are being verified for this county.
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Heard County Tax Commissioner's Office
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- The Tax Commissioner's Office posts sale lists on its website but does not publish a recurring sale calendar. The current posting is labeled "2025 Tax Sale List (Revised 10/17/2025)". The office's 2019 sale document is headed "Heard County Tax Sale 6/4/2019", which was the first Tuesday of June, matching Georgia's first-Tuesday courthouse sale schedule. No date for an upcoming sale is published on the site.
Registration and deposit
No bidder registration process, deposit rule, or payment method is published on the Heard County Tax Commissioner's website. Confirm requirements with the office at (706) 675-3391 before a sale.
Heard County is a small rural county and runs its tax sale offline. No online auction platform appears on any official Heard County source. The Tax Commissioner publishes the sale list as a PDF and an Excel file on the office home page, with no bidding portal, no registration form, and no auction vendor named. The only online system the county operates is heardcountypay.com, which redirects to a Government Window portal for paying property tax bills; that portal is a payment site and does not host tax sale bidding. The 2025 list carries 10 parcels with map and parcel number, property address, defendant in fi. fa., vesting deed book and page, years due, and a full legal description for each tract, so the posting doubles as the sale notice detail. Georgia sells a redeemable deed, so a winning bidder takes a deed subject to the owner's 12-month right of redemption at the statutory premium.
County offices
Tax Collector (runs the certificate sale)
Heard County Tax Commissioner's Office
201 Park Avenue, Room #300, Franklin, GA 30217 (mailing: P.O. Box 519, Franklin, GA 30217)
Official websiteNotes for Heard County
- Tax Commissioner is Shaina Coggin. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:45 PM, closed for lunch 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM. Fax is (706) 675-1123 and email is [email protected] (source: tc_office).
- The sale list lives on the Tax Commissioner's Office home page rather than on a dedicated tax sale page. Both a PDF and an Excel version of the 2025 list are posted (source: tc_office).
- Parcels on the 2025 list sit in Franklin (30217) and Hogansville (30230), and range from about 0.33 acre to 4.48 acres, so the inventory skews toward small rural tracts and single houses (source: sale_list_2025).
- The 2025 list shows 0.00 in the Amount Due column for every parcel, so opening bid amounts must be confirmed with the Tax Commissioner rather than read off the posted list (source: sale_list_2025).
- No excess funds list, no barment or foreclosure-of-redemption notice, and no bidder instructions are published on the county site. Those have to be requested from the office directly (source: tc_office).
- Government Window is the county's tax bill payment vendor only. Do not treat heardcountypay.com or heardcountyga.governmentwindow.com as an auction platform (source: payment_portal).
Georgia statewide rules
- Redemption
- The right to redeem runs for 12 months from the date of the sale and does not end there. It continues after the year until the tax deed purchaser forecloses it by serving and publishing the statutory barment notice, which cannot be started until 12 months have passed. The purchaser delivers the notice to the sheriff at least 45 days before the redemption deadline named in it, and publishes it once a week for four consecutive weeks in the six months immediately before that deadline. Redemption puts title back in the defendant in fi. fa. subject to the liens that existed at the sale, and the purchaser must execute and record a quitclaim deed. Title under a tax deed recorded on or after July 1, 1996 ripens by prescription four years after recording. Judicial in rem foreclosures under Article 5 run on a different clock: the owner has 60 days after the sale to redeem by paying the minimum bid price into the superior court.
- Deed deposit
- Georgia sets no statewide percentage deposit. A purchaser at a judicial sale may tender cash or a cashier's or certified check drawn for the purchase price and issued or certified by a federally insured financial institution. Counties publish their own payment terms, and many require payment in full at the close of the sale, so confirm the terms with the tax commissioner before bidding.
- Surplus proceeds
- Excess funds left after taxes, costs, and the expenses of the sale belong to the former owner and to recorded lienholders in order of priority. The officer who sold the property must mail notice of the excess funds by first-class mail within 30 days to the record owner at the time of the sale, to the holder of each security deed, and to every other party with a recorded equity interest or claim, and may file an interpleader action in superior court. Funds still unclaimed five years after the sale are paid over to the Georgia Department of Revenue, after which only a court order from an interpleader action releases them.
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 Heard County, Georgia sell tax liens or tax deeds?
- Heard County follows Georgia's redeemable deed state system.
How often does Heard County hold tax deed sales?
- annual. Each sale is scheduled and advertised in advance, so check the county's tax deed calendar for the next posted date.
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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