Dukes County, MA tax sales
Tax Sale Atlas maps the Dukes County, MA tax sale, one of 3,131 counties in 51 states. Massachusetts sells redeemable deeds that pay up to 8% a year interest on redemption. Sale office, calendar and list locations read from state rules plus city and town notices on Oct 6, 2026.
How tax deed sales work in Dukes County, seat of Edgartown: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.
New to tax sales? Read how Massachusetts tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.
- Next sale
- Set by each city or town
- Registration
- Each town sets its own terms of sale.
- County seat collector
- 508-627-6130
On this page
How Dukes County sells delinquent taxes
No tax lien certificate sale
Massachusetts issues no tax lien certificate. What an investor buys is a tax title: either a collector's deed from a collector's sale (s. 43) or an instrument of assignment from the treasurer's auction of tax titles the town already holds (s. 52). Both are subject to redemption, and both are often called 'tax liens' on municipal pages, which describes how they work (held as security) rather than a separate instrument.
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- The treasurer of each of the seven towns in Dukes County (Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgartown, Gosnold, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury). Dukes County government holds no tax sale.
- Frequency
- annual
- Registration
- Each town sets its own terms of sale.
When it runs
Registration and deposit
Each town sets its own terms of sale. In Oak Bluffs, town owned land sold at auction goes to the highest bidder, who pays a specified deposit at the sale and arranges the balance in cash; the town delivers a deed without covenants, recorded within 60 days at the buyer's expense, and the Select Board may reject any or all bids. Any person may ask the Oak Bluffs Select Board in writing to sell a town owned parcel, with a $50 deposit per parcel. The other six towns post no bidder registration, deposit or payment terms online, so contact the treasurer of the town where the parcel sits before any auction.
Sale format and venue
Dukes County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Dukes County tax sale 2026 searches, use the city and town sources below rather than a copied parcel list, and confirm the parcel, registration cutoff, deposit, and payment deadline against the collector of the city or town holding the sale 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.
Confirm the advertised parcel list
No single Dukes County list exists: each city or town advertises its own parcels. Get the notice from the town whose sale you plan to attend, and confirm the parcels with its collector.Register to bid
Sale day
Each city or town picks its own platform or in-person venue. Confirm the date and registration window with that town’s collector before you bid.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, treat the collector of the city or town holding the sale as the source for which parcels are actually offered. Do not rely on a third-party list for final parcel status.
Before you bid in Dukes County
4 checks
Confirm the parcel list before pricing
There is no county list: each town advertises its own. Get the notice from the town whose sale you plan to attend and confirm the advertised parcels with its collector before you price a bid.Confirm registration and deposit
Each town sets its own terms of sale. In Oak Bluffs, town owned land sold at auction goes to the highest bidder, who pays a specified deposit at the sale and arranges the balance in cash; the town delivers a deed without covenants, recorded within 60 days at the buyer's expense, and the Select Board may reject any or all bids. Any person may ask the Oak Bluffs Select Board in writing to sell a town owned parcel, with a $50 deposit per parcel. The other six towns post no bidder registration, deposit or payment terms online, so contact the treasurer of the town where the parcel sits before any auction.
Check the state rules that change the bid
Read the Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts 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
No standing over-the-counter list. A town's tax titles can be assigned only at a public auction after notice, and its foreclosed land is sold by public auction or broker listing when the town chooses. Ask the city or town treasurer what it holds.
New to this path? Read how over-the-counter purchases work. Every state has its own name for what goes unsold, so check what Massachusetts calls its leftover tax-sale inventory.
Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.
Local offices
County notes
- Dukes County covers seven towns: Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgartown, Gosnold, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury. Each town treasurer acts on its own, and the county holds no sale.
- Edgartown: the Town Treasurer handles tax titles and foreclosures of tax-delinquent property at Town Hall, 70 Main St, PO Box 5158, Edgartown, MA 02539, 508-627-6130. No tax title list or auction date is posted on the treasurer page, so ask the office for its current list.
- Oak Bluffs: the Treasurer/Collector oversees all tax liens and foreclosures; mail to P.O. Box 1327, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557, phone 508-693-3554 ext. 102. Its bylaw requires two consecutive weeks of newspaper notice before any auction of low value tax title land or other town owned land. The town posts no tax title list online, so request it from the treasurer.
- Tisbury: the Treasurer's Office handles all tax title accounts at 51 Spring Street (mailing P.O. Box 1208), Tisbury, MA 02568, 508-696-4250. No tax title list or auction notice is posted on the town page.
- West Tisbury: the Treasurer/Collector processes parcels in tax title foreclosure and holds the town's tax possessions, at 1059 State Road, 3rd Floor (mailing PO Box 278), West Tisbury, MA 02575, 508-696-0104. Ask the office for its list of tax possessions, which is not posted online.
- Chilmark: the Treasurer handles tax title accounts and tax foreclosure proceedings at Town Hall, 401 Middle Road, P.O. Box 119, Chilmark, MA 02535, 508-645-2106. No tax title list is posted online.
- Aquinnah: the Treasurer is at 955 State Road, Aquinnah, MA 02535, 508-645-2301, and the Tax Collector at 508-645-2303. The town posts no tax title list or auction notice online.
- Gosnold (Cuttyhunk and the Elizabeth Islands): one Tax Collector/Treasurer serves the town at 28 Tower Hill Road, Cuttyhunk Island, MA 02713, 508-990-7408. No tax title list is posted online.
Massachusetts rules
- Redemption
- Anyone with an interest in the land may redeem at any time before a foreclosure petition is filed, and a holder generally cannot petition until 12 months after the sale or taking, so the owner usually has at least a year and there is no fixed outer deadline. On a tax title taken or sold before November 1, 2024 the wait before a petition is six months, not 12. After a petition is filed, a party may still redeem through the Land Court by filing an answer and paying on the terms the court fixes, until a judgment forever bars redemption. The treasurer may extend the no-foreclosure period by up to 2 years when accepting a partial payment, and a town may by bylaw or ordinance offer payment agreements of up to 10 years during which it may not foreclose. Shorter routes apply where buildings on town-held land are found abandoned or the redemption amount exceeds the assessed value.
- Deed deposit
- At a collector's sale, the purchaser must make an immediate deposit of whatever sum the collector considers necessary to show good faith, or the sale is void (s. 43). No statute sets a deposit for a treasurer's tax title auction or a custodian's auction; each municipality sets it in its terms of sale.
- Surplus proceeds
- Since November 1, 2024 (St. 2024, c. 140), the owner at the time of a Land Court foreclosure keeps a right to any excess equity, and that applies to a municipality AND to a private purchaser of tax receivables (s. 64). Within 30 days after the judgment becomes final, the judgment holder must elect to retain or sell. If it retains, it must obtain an independent appraisal within 120 days and pay out the appraised value above the tax title balance and costs. If it sells, it must list with a licensed broker within 180 days, then auction at not less than two-thirds of appraised value if unsold after 12 months. Excess equity is held in a segregated interest-bearing escrow; claims may be made for 18 months after notice where owners are unknown, unclaimed funds go to the state's abandoned property process after 19 months, and disputes go to the Superior Court with a jury trial right (s. 64A). Owners foreclosed on or after May 25, 2021 had 12 months from the act to sue for excess equity (St. 2024, c. 140, s. 212). Surplus from a s. 79 sale without foreclosure is held for the person entitled for five years, then goes to the town.
What the deed conveys: The tax lien dates from January 1 of the assessment year and the holder's title is prima facie valid once the deed, instrument of taking or assignment is recorded in time (ss. 37, 45, 52, 54). The Land Court judgment bars redemption, but any interested person other than the petitioner may move to vacate it within 1 year for extraordinary circumstances (90 days where the petition rested on abandonment or an s. 81B certification; up to 1 year where record title stands in the name of a deceased person or a person under guardianship or conservatorship). A sale to an innocent purchaser for value or a paid excess equity claim ordinarily protects the judgment, but not absolutely: s. 69A lets the court vacate anyway if it 'makes appropriate equitable orders to protect the rights of the purchaser of the property or the payor of the excess equity'. After the deadline, a challenge requires a showing that the moving party's due process rights were violated. A foreclosed tax title remains subject to easements, restrictions and most covenants running with the land. After foreclosure the excess equity owed to the former owner is a cost the judgment holder must account for, which changes the economics of buying a tax title with the aim of taking the property. See the due diligence guide.
Frequently asked questions
Does Dukes County, Massachusetts sell tax liens or tax deeds?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Verified Oct 6, 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 office that runs the sale before you bid.
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