Skip to content
Tax Sale Atlas

St. Louis City, MO tax sales

How tax lien and tax deed sales work in St. Louis City, seat of St. Louis: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.

New to tax sales? Read how Missouri tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.

Next sale
There is no separate deed auction.
Format
In person
Registration
Pre-register online through the Sheriff's land tax sale form to receive a bid number.
County office
(314) 622-4851
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 22, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How St. Louis City sells delinquent taxes

Tax certificate sale (lien)

In person
Run by
Office of the Sheriff, City of St. Louis
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
Five auctions a year rather than one August sale.
Registration
Pre-register online through the Sheriff's land tax sale form to receive a bid number.
Sale list
Current land tax sale properties
When it runs
Five auctions a year rather than one August sale. The Sheriff states that "Land Tax sales are held 5 times a year" and that "Sales are held outside at 9:00 am sharp on the 11th Street Side of the Civil Courts Building at 10 N Tucker Blvd." Sale dates for the year are set at the beginning of each year; the Collector of Revenue published the 2026 calendar as Sale 236 on May 12, Sale 237 on June 9, Sale 238 on July 14, Sale 239 on August 11 and Sale 240 on October 6.
Registration and deposit

Pre-register online through the Sheriff's land tax sale form to receive a bid number. Registration opens April 1 for the first sale of the year and closes 10 days before each sale, and the form must be filed no less than 10 days before the sale date. It asks for name, phone, email and a street address (P.O. boxes are not accepted); bidding as a business also requires the business name, its owners, officers or partners, the Missouri charter number and the registered agent. Bidders must swear they hold no delinquent property taxes and no housing code violations, and pre-registration is also screened for anyone who previously won a bid and then failed to pay, confirm the sale or sign the Sheriff deed.

Sale format and venue
St. Louis city does not sell tax lien certificates. It runs the court-supervised Land Tax Collection Law process, so the Collector of Revenue files a delinquent land tax suit and the Sheriff sells the property itself roughly a year later. Bidding opens at the amount of taxes owed and the winning bidder buys the real estate, not a certificate. The auction is held in person and outdoors on the 11th Street side of the Civil Courts Building at 9:00 am sharp, with no online bidding platform. Payment for every parcel won must reach the Sheriff's Office by 2:00 pm the same day, by cashier's check or money order payable to Sheriff City of St. Louis; cash is no longer accepted as of the 2026 land tax season, and missing the 2:00 pm cutoff puts a bidder on the no bidder list. Budget a further $150 per parcel, payable the same way, to cover posting and deed recording. The purchase is not final until a judge confirms it: file a motion within two weeks of payment, have an appraiser testify to the reasonable value of the property in Division 29, and notify the Collector of Revenue's attorney, the Sheriff's Office, the previous owners and every lien holder of the hearing date. After confirmation the Sheriff's Office records the deed and mails it to the address on the confirmation judgment, and the buyer must apply to the City for an occupancy permit within ten days of the hearing. Property lists are posted two weeks before each sale.
Source: Land Tax Sales, Office of the Sheriff· Verified Aug 22, 2026

Tax deed sale

Run by
County Collector
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
There is no separate deed auction.
When it runs
There is no separate deed auction. Deeds come out of the same August sale once a parcel has cycled past the third offering, and unsold post third offering parcels are re-offered at least once every 30 days. A purchaser at a post third offering sale takes an immediate collector's deed with no redemption period.
Sale format and venue
A first or second offering buyer holds a certificate and must wait out the one year redemption period, obtain a title search, serve the 90 day notice of the right to redeem on the owner and every recorded claimant by both first class and certified mail, file the affidavit with the collector, pay all subsequent taxes and the recording fee, and get the deed executed and recorded within 18 months of the sale. Miss the 18 months and the amount due the purchaser stops being a lien. A third offering buyer follows a shorter version, with a 90 day redemption period and notice to recorded claimants within 45 days of the sale. Counties that have elected the Land Tax Collection Law in Chapter 141 pull those parcels out of the collector's offering lists entirely and foreclose in court, and the sheriff sells them there, so confirm which chapter this county runs.
Source: Missouri Revised Statutes 140.405 - Purchaser of property at delinquent land tax auction, deed issued to, when, notice of right of redemptionMo. Rev. Stat. 140.405· Verified Aug 18, 2026

St. Louis City tax sale list and auction calendar

For St. Louis City tax sale 2026 searches, use the county-run sources below rather than a copied parcel list, and confirm the parcel, registration cutoff, deposit, and payment deadline against the county before you bid.

  1. Get the advertised list

    Use Current land tax sale properties for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.

  2. Register to bid

    Pre-register online through the Sheriff's land tax sale form to receive a bid number. Full requirements are in the sale card above.

  3. Sale day

    There is no separate deed auction. The sale is live and in person; there is no online bidding platform. Confirm the venue and hour with the county office before you go.

  4. Confirm with the office

    If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use County Collector as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in St. Louis City

  1. Start with the live sale list

    Pull the current advertised parcels from Current land tax sale properties. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.

  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    Pre-register online through the Sheriff's land tax sale form to receive a bid number. Registration opens April 1 for the first sale of the year and closes 10 days before each sale, and the form must be filed no less than 10 days before the sale date. It asks for name, phone, email and a street address (P.O. boxes are not accepted); bidding as a business also requires the business name, its owners, officers or partners, the Missouri charter number and the registered agent. Bidders must swear they hold no delinquent property taxes and no housing code violations, and pre-registration is also screened for anyone who previously won a bid and then failed to pay, confirm the sale or sign the Sheriff deed.

  3. Check the state rules that change the bid

    Read the Missouri due-diligence checklist before bidding. Redemption, liens that survive a tax deed, title cleanup, and payment deadlines can change what a parcel is worth.

  4. 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

Missouri publishes no standing over the counter certificate list. The equivalent route is the post third offering sale. Parcels that draw no buyer at a third offering must be advertised or offered again once every 30 days, and where the county's appointed trustee declines to take a parcel the collector may sell it at any time and for any amount. A buyer at any of these sales gets an immediate collector's deed, no redemption period, and must first pay every tax that fell due after the taxes named in the advertisement. Parcels the trustee did take are held for the taxing funds and sold on order of the county commission. Ask the collector for the current post third offering list and its bidding terms, because the format varies by county.

New to this path? Read how over-the-counter certificates work.

Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.

County offices

Tax Collector (runs the certificate sale)

Office of the Sheriff, City of St. Louis

(314) 622-4851

10 N. Tucker Blvd, 8th Floor, Civil Courts Building, St. Louis, MO 63101

Official website

County notes

  • The statewide fourth-Monday-in-August certificate sale does not run here. St. Louis city sells under the Land Tax Collection Law, so the product is a Sheriff's deed confirmed by the court, not a certificate of purchase earning 10 percent.
  • Watch the Collector of Revenue's suit and sale calendar as well as the sale list. A parcel enters the pipeline when a delinquent land tax suit is filed, and the sale follows about a year later, so the suit schedule is the earliest public warning that a property is heading to auction.
  • The Collector of Revenue's property tax office handles delinquent balances and payoff questions at (314) 622-4101 or [email protected], City Hall Room 109, 1200 Market Street, St. Louis, MO 63103-2895. The office administers roughly 220,000 parcels.
  • Parcels that clear the Sheriff's sale unsold move into the Land Reutilization Authority inventory, which is a separate buying channel. LRA properties are nominated and reviewed by the Stabilization Advisory Committee, then sold to the highest bidder who can rehab to City of St. Louis occupancy standards within 24 months.
  • Browse the LRA and other city-owned inventory through the Available City-Owned Property Search at https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/property/city-owned-property-search.cfm, filterable by owner, use type, neighborhood, ward and zip, with the list downloadable as CSV, PDF or JSON.
  • Sale notices are published in the St. Louis Daily Record on the dates listed in the Collector's schedule, which is the statutory notice an investor can track between list postings.

Missouri rules

Max interest rate
10% per year, set by statute (bidding is on price)
Minimum return
No statutory minimum return; what you earn is set by the price at the sale
Redemption
After a first or second offering sale, the owner and other interested parties hold an absolute right to redeem for one year, then a defeasible right that lasts until the purchaser actually acquires the deed. A purchaser must serve the 90 day notice of the right to redeem before the date on which the deed can be acquired, so the practical window usually runs past the one year mark. After a third offering sale, redemption runs 90 days, and the purchaser must give notice to recorded claimants within 45 days of the sale. After a post third offering sale, there is no redemption period and the deed issues immediately. Minors and incapacitated or disabled persons have a longer right, running five years from the last payment of taxes by that person or a predecessor. The right also ends if the certificate lapses because the purchaser failed to record the deed within 18 months.
Deed deposit
The winning bidder must pay the full amount of the bid to the collector immediately at the sale. Chapter 140 sets no advance bidder deposit and no balance due window. A bidder who fails to pay forfeits a penalty of 25 percent of the bid to the county school fund and the parcel is offered again at once as though no sale had been made. Counties running an online or registered sale may impose their own deposit and registration terms on top of the statute, so confirm them with the collector.
Surplus proceeds
Any amount above the taxes and costs is surplus. The collector pays it into the county treasury, where the treasurer holds it in trust for the lesser of three years or 90 days after the redemption period expires. It is distributed first to the former lienholders of record in the priority their liens held on the date of the sale, then to the former owner. No distribution other than through the redemption process may occur until 90 days after the redemption period ends, and a claimant must file a written claim with the county commission within those 90 days, referencing the recorded lien it rests on. The county pays no interest on the fund. Anything still unclaimed at three years becomes the permanent school fund of the county.
Governing statute
Mo. Rev. Stat. Chapter 140

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.

See the full Missourirules and every county →

Frequently asked questions

Does St. Louis City, Missouri sell tax liens or tax deeds?

St. Louis City follows Missouri's tax lien state system.

When is the St. Louis City tax certificate sale?

Five auctions a year rather than one August sale. The Sheriff states that "Land Tax sales are held 5 times a year" and that "Sales are held outside at 9:00 am sharp on the 11th Street Side of the Civil Courts Building at 10 N Tucker Blvd." Sale dates for the year are set at the beginning of each year; the Collector of Revenue published the 2026 calendar as Sale 236 on May 12, Sale 237 on June 9, Sale 238 on July 14, Sale 239 on August 11 and Sale 240 on October 6. The sale is held in person. Always confirm the exact date with the County Collector before the sale.

How often does St. Louis City hold tax deed sales?

St. Louis City holds its tax deed sale once a year. There is no separate deed auction. Each sale is scheduled and advertised in advance, so check the county's tax deed calendar for the next posted date.

I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?

Often yes, by paying the overdue taxes, interest, and costs before the deadline. Missouri's redemption rule: 1 year from a first or second offering sale, 90 days from a third offering sale, and none after a post third offering sale. Call the County Collector as early as possible for your exact payoff and options; deadlines are strict. Free help: lawhelp.org lists legal aid programs, and consumerfinance.gov lists HUD-approved housing counselors.

Where can I find the St. Louis City tax sale list?

St. Louis City posts its tax sale list at stlouis-mo.gov. Lists go up ahead of each sale and keep changing until the sale date, so confirm every parcel against the county's legal advertisement before you bid.

Verified Aug 22, 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 county office before you bid.

More Missouri counties

Browse all 115 Missouri counties

Compare sale calendars, platforms, and rules across the state, or read the guides before you bid.

Missouri tax salesDue diligence guide
Call Office of the Sheriff