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Tax Sale Atlas

Musselshell County, MT tax sales

Tax Sale Atlas maps the Musselshell County, MT tax sale, one of 2,862 counties in 36 states. Montana sells tax lien certificates paying up to 10%. Sale office, calendar and list locations read from the county’s own official pages on Sep 11, 2026.

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

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

Next sale
Nothing is scheduled in advance.
Format
In person
County office
406-323-2504
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Sep 11, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page
Look up a sale detail

County Treasurer. In person at the county treasurer's office during regular office hours. Mont. Code Ann. 15-18-220(6) permits a county to conduct the auction electronically but does not require it, and there is no statewide platform.. As applied for. There is no deed sale calendar, and most parcels never reach an auction at all.

Record quality: high. Last verified: 2026-09-11.

Mont. Code Ann. 15-18-220 - Sale at public auction, notice of auction, cancellation of assignment for unsuccessful auction, foreign entity prohibition (source accessed 2026-09-10)

Recorded reference information. Verify current sale conditions with the county. Read the full sale details.

Link to this detail

How Musselshell County sells delinquent taxes

Tax certificate sale (lien)

In person
Run by
Musselshell County Treasurer
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
There is no auction and no sale day.
Registration
There is no bidder registration, no deposit and nothing to sign up for.
Sale list
Musselshell County property tax search
When it runs
There is no auction and no sale day. Real estate taxes run on the schedule the treasurer posts, "November 30th - First Half Due" and "May 31st - Second Half Due", and the statewide assignment calendar takes over once they go delinquent: notice of pending attachment by the last Monday in June, the lien attaches to the county no later than the first working day in August, and an investor's notice of pending assignment may not be mailed before August 15 and must precede payment by two weeks. The earliest an assignment can close in Roundup is therefore around August 29. The county sets no assignment day or list cutoff of its own, so liens the county still holds can be assigned at the treasurer's counter through the rest of the year. Subsequent taxes may be added to an existing assignment only between June 1 and July 31.
Registration and deposit

There is no bidder registration, no deposit and nothing to sign up for. Mail the person to whom the property was assessed a notice of pending assignment in the form at Mont. Code Ann. 15-17-323(6), no earlier than August 15 and at least two weeks before you pay, then bring the certified mailing receipt and a copy of the notice to the treasurer at 506 Main Street and pay the delinquent taxes, penalties, interest and costs plus the county's assignment fee. Where two or more investors want the same parcel, the office draws names, and its stated policy is that "once a name is drawn that name will not be eligible for the rest of the drawings". Ask the treasurer for the assignment fee, the accepted payment methods and the drawing date before you mail anything, because none of the three is posted.

Sale format and venue
Musselshell County is a small, low-volume assignment county with one county-specific rule an investor has to plan around: contested parcels are allocated by a name drawing, and a winner is removed from the remaining drawings. That makes it difficult for a single buyer to take a whole year's liens here, and it rewards ranking more parcels rather than concentrating on one. Price and return are fixed by statute, so nothing is bid up or bid down. Reach the office at 406-323-2504 or [email protected]. In person at the Musselshell County Treasurer's counter, 506 Main Street in Roundup. Montana runs no tax lien auction, so there is no online bidding platform and no vendor account to open. The county's online tax search and payment page covers current parcel taxes rather than assignments.
Source: Treasurer's Office, Musselshell County MT· Verified Sep 11, 2026

Tax deed sale

In person at the county treasurer's office during regular office hours. Mont. Code Ann. 15-18-220(6) permits a county to conduct the auction electronically but does not require it, and there is no statewide platform.
Run by
County Treasurer
Frequency
As applied for. There is no deed sale calendar, and most parcels never reach an auction at all.
Typical timing
Nothing is scheduled in advance.
When it runs
Nothing is scheduled in advance. Once the redemption period runs out, 3 years after attachment or 2 years for an unimproved subdivided lot with delinquent improvement district assessments, the path forks on what is standing on the parcel. Ordinary property is deeded straight to the assignee under Mont. Code Ann. 15-18-211 for a 25 dollar deed fee plus the county's notice costs, with no auction and no bidders. Property with a dwelling currently occupied by the legal titleholder of record goes to a public auction instead: the assignee files a tax deed application with the treasurer after the redemption period expires, and the treasurer must hold the auction in the county within 60 days of receiving it. The treasurer publishes the auction notice with the date, time, location, legal description, deposit requirement and minimum opening bid. The auction runs during the treasurer's regular office hours and may be conducted electronically.
Registration and deposit

Bidders at a Montana tax deed auction do not pre-register, but three requirements bind at the auction itself. An entity must give the treasurer written proof that it is a domestic entity before the treasurer will accept its opening bid, and a foreign entity may not buy at all. The high bidder posts a nonrefundable deposit at the time of sale of 5 percent of the bid or 200 dollars, whichever is greater, applied to the price on full payment, and the treasurer may ask bidders to show they can post it. Full payment of the purchase price plus the treasurer's auction costs is due within 24 hours of the sale, excluding weekends and legal holidays, and a bidder who misses it loses the parcel to the next highest bidder. Confirm the accepted payment methods with the county treasurer before the auction opens.

Sale format and venue
The opening bid is the amount needed to redeem the lien, plus everything the assignee paid on application, plus the tax deed and recording fees, plus an amount equal to half the most recent assessed value of the land and of the dwelling. An independent appraisal meeting Montana Board of Real Estate Appraisers standards and conducted within 6 months may stand in for the assessed value. The treasurer may not take a bid below that figure. The half-value component, and anything bid above the opening bid, is surplus: the treasurer repays the assignee first where someone else buys, then pays the surplus to the legal titleholder of record within 30 days. If nobody bids, or no bidder pays, or the assignee wins and fails to pay inside the 24 hours, the treasurer cancels the assignment and files a notice of cancellation, and the investor loses the lien position entirely. The owner may redeem right up to the day of the auction.
Source: Mont. Code Ann. 15-18-220 - Sale at public auction, notice of auction, cancellation of assignment for unsuccessful auction, foreign entity prohibitionMont. Code Ann. 15-18-220· Verified Sep 10, 2026

Musselshell County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Musselshell County 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. 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.

  1. Get the advertised list

    Use Musselshell County property tax search for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.

  2. Register to bid

    Ask the county office how and when to register; many counties close registration days or weeks before the sale.

  3. Sale day

    Nothing is scheduled in advance. 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 Treasurer as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Musselshell County

  1. Start with the live sale list

    Pull the current advertised parcels from Musselshell County property tax search. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.

  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    Bidders at a Montana tax deed auction do not pre-register, but three requirements bind at the auction itself. An entity must give the treasurer written proof that it is a domestic entity before the treasurer will accept its opening bid, and a foreign entity may not buy at all. The high bidder posts a nonrefundable deposit at the time of sale of 5 percent of the bid or 200 dollars, whichever is greater, applied to the price on full payment, and the treasurer may ask bidders to show they can post it. Full payment of the purchase price plus the treasurer's auction costs is due within 24 hours of the sale, excluding weekends and legal holidays, and a bidder who misses it loses the parcel to the next highest bidder. Confirm the accepted payment methods with the county treasurer before the auction opens.

  3. Check the state rules that change the bid

    Read the Montana 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 Montana before you price the title work.

  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

Every Montana tax lien is effectively over the counter, because assignment is the only way one is ever acquired. The county holds each lien from the day it attaches, and the treasurer must assign it to any person who mails the assessed owner the statutory notice and pays the delinquent taxes, penalties, interest and costs plus the county's assignment fee. After the late August allocation step, whatever is left sits with the treasurer and can be assigned on demand for the rest of the year, subject to the same notice rules: not earlier than August 15, mailed at least 2 weeks before payment and no more than 60 days before it. Older tax years are assignable the same way. Separately, land the county itself took by tax deed is sold at a public auction the county commissioners must order within 6 months of acquiring title, at a price the board fixes in advance, with the list of lands and the time and place published by the county clerk. That county land auction is not a tax lien or tax deed sale and the delinquent taxpayer may repurchase up to 24 hours before the first offering.

New to this path? Read how over-the-counter certificates work. Every state has its own name for what goes unsold, so check what Montana calls its leftover tax-sale inventory.

Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.

County offices

Tax Collector (runs the certificate sale)

Musselshell County Treasurer

406-323-2504

506 Main Street, Roundup, MT 59072

Official website

County notes

  • Musselshell County draws names when more than one investor asks for the same parcel. The treasurer's office states the policy in full: "We have updated our policy on how we handle multiple assignees for a single property. We will now be drawing names for each property that has the multiple assignees. To make sure this is an equal opportunity for everyone, once a name is drawn that name will not be eligible for the rest of the drawings." Winning one parcel takes your name out of the remaining drawings, so rank widely rather than chasing a single parcel.
  • There is no online parcel list. The county posts no delinquent-tax list, no assignment list and no sale list, and Montana requires none. The list an investor needs is the notice of pending attachment printed in the county's legal newspaper by the last Monday in June, together with the delinquent record kept at the treasurer's counter at 506 Main Street in Roundup and open to inspection. Request the current list by phone at 406-323-2504 or by email at [email protected]. The county's online tax search will confirm the status of a parcel you already have a number for, and it carries 2014 forward only.
  • The assignment fee and the drawing date are county policy and neither is published, so confirm both with the treasurer before mailing the statutory notice. Assignment fees at other Montana treasurers ran from 50 to 75 dollars per parcel, which is the range to budget for until this office quotes its own.
  • Supply is thin. The treasurer's July 2026 report to the county commissioners counted 288 pending tax attachments on 2025 real estate, a single assigned parcel close to tax deed, and no tax deeds expected to issue that year.
  • A tax deed here normally issues to the assignee with no auction at all once the redemption period runs out. The one exception is a parcel holding a dwelling the legal titleholder still occupies: the treasurer must then hold a public auction in the county within 60 days of the assignee's application, noticed parcel by parcel with a published minimum opening bid. Those notices appear when an application triggers one rather than on any annual calendar, so watch the county notices page and the legal newspaper after you apply.
  • A Musselshell County sheriff's sale or foreclosure notice is a mortgage foreclosure and has nothing to do with the tax lien process. Do not treat one as a tax sale.

Montana rules

Max interest rate
10% per year, fixed by statute (nothing is bid)
Minimum return
No statutory floor; every certificate earns the same statutory rate
Redemption
The clock runs from attachment of the tax lien, which happens no later than the first working day in August, and it ends on the first working day in August of the third year after that. Redemption stays open for the whole period and the assignee cannot shorten it. On the residential auction track the right to redeem runs further still: the statutory notice tells the parties that a tax deed will be auctioned unless the lien is redeemed before the date of the auction, and 15-18-112(4) lets a particular tax year be redeemed until a deed has issued under 15-18-211 or 15-18-220. Interest and costs keep accruing until the day of redemption, and the county treasurer, not the assignee, calculates the payoff as of the date of payment. A redemption before the lien is assigned goes to the county; after assignment the treasurer pays the assignee.
Deed deposit
The high bidder posts a nonrefundable deposit with the county treasurer at the time of sale of 5 percent of the bid or 200 dollars, whichever is greater, and the deposit is applied to the sale price on full payment. Notice of the deposit requirement must be posted at the auction site, and the treasurer may require bidders to show they can post it. The treasurer may refuse to recognize a bid from someone who previously bid and then refused to honor the bid.
Surplus proceeds
Montana pays the owner's equity out rather than letting it be forfeited. The portion of the opening bid equal to half the most recent assessed value of the land and of the dwelling is treated as surplus funds, and so is anything a winning bid adds above the opening bid. Where the deed is bought by someone other than the assignee, the treasurer first repays the assignee the amount paid for the assignment, including delinquent taxes, penalties, interest and costs, plus everything paid on the tax deed application under 15-18-219(2). The treasurer then distributes the surplus to the legal titleholder of record within 30 days of receiving payment from the purchaser, whether or not the titleholder lives in Montana. On the ordinary non-auction track there is no sale, no bidding and no surplus: the assignee receives the deed itself.
Governing statute
Mont. Code Ann. Title 15, ch. 17

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 Montanarules and every county →

Frequently asked questions

Does Musselshell County, Montana sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Musselshell County follows Montana's tax lien state system.

When is the Musselshell County tax certificate sale?

There is no auction and no sale day. Real estate taxes run on the schedule the treasurer posts, "November 30th - First Half Due" and "May 31st - Second Half Due", and the statewide assignment calendar takes over once they go delinquent: notice of pending attachment by the last Monday in June, the lien attaches to the county no later than the first working day in August, and an investor's notice of pending assignment may not be mailed before August 15 and must precede payment by two weeks. The earliest an assignment can close in Roundup is therefore around August 29. The county sets no assignment day or list cutoff of its own, so liens the county still holds can be assigned at the treasurer's counter through the rest of the year. Subsequent taxes may be added to an existing assignment only between June 1 and July 31. The sale is held in person. Always confirm the exact date with the County Treasurer before the sale.

How often does Musselshell County hold tax deed sales?

Musselshell County holds its tax deed sale As applied for. There is no deed sale calendar, and most parcels never reach an auction at all. Nothing is scheduled in advance. 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. Montana's redemption rule: 3 years from attachment of the tax lien, ending on the first working day in August; 2 years for a subdivided residential or commercial lot with delinquent improvement district assessments and no habitable dwelling or commercial structure. Call the County Treasurer 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 Musselshell County tax sale list?

Musselshell County posts its tax sale list at mtcounty.com. 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 Sep 11, 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.

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