Suffolk County, MA tax sales

Local offices

County notes

• •Suffolk County is made up of four municipalities: Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop. Each runs its own tax title process, and the county holds no sale.
• •Boston: the Collecting Division at 1 City Hall Square, Window M-30 (617-635-4131, collecting@boston.gov) prepares and files tax takings and tax certification liens. The Law Department's Tax Title Division (617-635-4034, law@boston.gov) files foreclosure petitions in Land Court.
• •Boston sells tax-foreclosed and surplus property through Requests for Proposals issued by the Mayor's Office of Housing, Real Estate Management and Sales (26 Court Street, 617-635-3880, REMSSTAFF@boston.gov). Responses to an open RFP are submitted electronically, buyers must start development within the time frame the city sets, and offers outside an RFP are not accepted.
• •Chelsea: the Office of the Treasurer/Collector, City Hall Room 213, 500 Broadway (617-466-4240), posts its notice of tax taking on its web page, with a parcel list for a taking dated December 18, 2025. A taking transfers title to the city; it is not an auction.
• •Revere: the Office of the Treasurer/Collector at 281 Broadway (Treasurer 781-286-8136, Collector 781-286-8120) places liens on or before June 30 and advertises delinquent properties in a local newspaper for two weeks in June.
• •Revere publishes its FY2025 tax title liens list and states that the city petitions for foreclosure in Land Court and, after final judgment, sells the property at public auction.
• •Winthrop: the Treasurer/Collector at Town Hall, 1 Metcalf Square (Treasurer 617-846-3226, Collector 617-846-1750) posts no tax title or foreclosed-property auction information; call the office and watch local legal notices.
• •No Suffolk County municipality lists an online auction platform. Ask each treasurer how and where a tax title or foreclosed-parcel auction will be held.

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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