Richland County, MT tax sales
Tax Sale Atlas maps the Richland 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 state rules plus what the county publishes on Sep 11, 2026.
How tax lien and tax deed sales work in Richland County, seat of Sidney: 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
- 406-433-1707
On this page
How Richland County sells delinquent taxes
Tax certificate sale (lien)
- Run by
- Richland County Treasurer
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- No auction and no sale date.
- Registration
- There is no bidder registration, no deposit and no auction to sign up for.
When it runs
Registration and deposit
There is no bidder registration, no deposit and no auction to sign up for. Mail the person the property was assessed to a notice of pending assignment by certified mail, in the form printed at Mont. Code Ann. 15-17-323(6), carrying the owner of record, mailing address, legal description, parcel number and the date of the notice. Send it no earlier than August 15, at least two weeks before you pay, and no more than 60 days before the purchase. Then bring the certified mailing receipt and a copy of the notice to the Richland County Treasurer at 201 W. Main in Sidney and pay the delinquent taxes, penalties, interest and costs plus the county assignment fee. Richland County does not publish that fee, the form it wants, or its policy for two investors who request the same parcel, so call 406-433-1707 and settle all three before you mail anything.
Sale format and venue
Tax deed sale
- 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
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
Richland County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Richland 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.
Get the advertised list
Richland County publishes no tax sale list online. The County Treasurer advertises the parcels ahead of the sale rather than posting them, so the list reaches bidders through the county legal newspaper and the office itself. Call 406-433-1707 to ask for the current advertisement.Register to bid
Ask the county office how and when to register; many counties close registration days or weeks before the sale.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.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 Richland County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
There is no online list to price against. Richland County advertises the parcels before the sale rather than posting them, so get the advertisement from the office on 406-433-1707 and price from the parcel numbers it carries.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.
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.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 liens and deeds
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)
County notes
- Richland County publishes no list of liened or assignable parcels. The annual notice of pending attachment runs in the county legal newspaper in late June, and the delinquent property list sits at the treasurer's counter in the courthouse at 201 W. Main in Sidney, open to inspection. Ask the treasurer's office for the current list, because no county web page carries one.
- The county website covers no part of the tax lien process. The treasurer's page carries office contacts, property tax due dates, motor vehicle forms, a protest form and an online tax search, so expect a phone call or a counter visit for the assignment fee, the required form and the order in which requests are filled.
- After the redemption period runs out, an ordinary parcel is deeded straight to the assignee with no auction. A parcel with a dwelling the legal titleholder still occupies goes to a public auction the treasurer holds in the county within 60 days of the assignee's application, noticed parcel by parcel. Richland County keeps no tax deed auction calendar because those auctions are set one parcel at a time, only when an assignee applies.
- A Richland County sheriff's sale is a mortgage foreclosure, not a tax sale, and buys no tax lien position.
Montana rules
- 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.
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.
Frequently asked questions
Does Richland County, Montana sell tax liens or tax deeds?
When is the Richland County tax certificate sale?
How often does Richland County hold tax deed sales?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
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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