Essex County, MA tax sales

Local offices

County notes

• •Essex County has 34 cities and towns, and each Treasurer/Collector runs its own tax takings and any tax title or foreclosed-property auction; the county itself holds no sale.
• •Salem: the Treasurer (98 Washington Street, 3rd Floor, 978-619-5635) handles tax title accounts and the public auction or disposition of foreclosed properties. The Collector's Notice of Tax Taking, dated June 26, 2026, announces the collector's intention to take the listed parcels for the city on July 15, 2026; it is a taking list, not a list of parcels offered to bidders.
• •Lawrence: the Treasurer/Tax Collector is at 200 Common Street, 1st Floor, Room 101 (978-620-3170). The only list on its Tax Taking Advertising page is a tax taking advertisement dated November 10, 2019, so ask the collector for the current list.
• •Haverhill: the Treasurer/Tax Collector is at 4 Summer Street, Room 114 (978-374-2320). The city sells surplus property through GovDeals and Auctions International and uses an RFP for buildings and large tracts of land.
• •Lynn: the Treasurer/Collector is custodian of the city's tax title and foreclosure accounts; City Hall is at 3 City Hall Square, (781) 598-4000.
• •Gloucester: the Treasurer/Collector (9 Dale Avenue, 978-325-5140) is custodian of tax-foreclosed property and posts the July 13, 2026 tax taking list and an FY21 to FY25 tax takings list on its Tax Title page.
• •Beverly: the Collector of Taxes (191 Cabot Street, 978-921-6000) posts its parcel-by-parcel tax taking list on the Notices of Tax Taking page.
• •Danvers, Swampscott and Andover each post a tax title list of parcels noticed for taking on the Treasurer/Collector page; Swampscott's Treasury is at 22 Monument Avenue (781-596-8850) and Andover's at 36 Bartlet Street (978-623-8940).
• •Methuen: the Treasurer/Tax Collector (41 Pleasant Street, Room 103, 978-983-8520) posts a Fiscal 2024 tax taking list. Boxford's Treasurer/Tax Collector (7A Spofford Road, 978-887-3674) posts a 2025 list of tax taking notices.
• •Other Treasurer/Collector offices: Saugus 781-231-4135, Ipswich 978-356-6610, Amesbury 978-388-8105, North Andover 978-688-9550.
• •A tax taking list is not a sale list. Investors buy only when a treasurer auctions tax titles or a municipality sells land it has already foreclosed in Land Court.
• •Sullivan & Sullivan Auctioneers names Boxford and Marblehead among its municipal clients. For the remaining towns, including Newburyport, Peabody, Rockport and the smaller towns, call the Treasurer/Collector and watch the local newspaper for tax title auction notices.

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.M.G.L. c. 60, s. 62, redemption at 8 percent interest on the original sum, before a foreclosure petition is filedM.G.L. c. 60, s. 62Verified Sep 28, 2026

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.M.G.L. c. 60, s. 52, treasurer's public auction assigning tax titles, individually or bundled, to the highest bidder for not less than the redemption amountM.G.L. c. 60, s. 52Verified Sep 28, 2026

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.M.G.L. c. 60, s. 64A, post-foreclosure election to retain or sell, appraisal, broker listing, auction at not less than two-thirds of appraised value, excess equity claimsM.G.L. c. 60, s. 64AVerified Sep 28, 2026

Governing statute

M.G.L. c. 60, s. 52M.G.L. c. 60, s. 52, treasurer's public auction assigning tax titles, individually or bundled, to the highest bidder for not less than the redemption amountM.G.L. c. 60, s. 52Verified Sep 28, 2026

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.M.G.L. c. 60, s. 69A, motion to vacate a foreclosure decree within 1 year (90 days for abandoned property or 81B certifications)M.G.L. c. 60, s. 69AVerified Sep 28, 2026 See the due diligence guide.

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