Coös County, NH tax sales
Tax Sale Atlas maps the Coös County, NH tax sale, one of 3,131 counties in 51 states. New Hampshire cities and towns sell tax-foreclosed land the government already owns, so no statutory investor interest rate applies. Sale office, calendar and list locations read from state rules plus city and town notices on Oct 6, 2026.
How tax deed sales work in Coös County, seat of Lancaster: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.
New to tax sales? Read how New Hampshire tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.
- Next sale
- Set by each city or town
- County seat collector
- 603-752-6350
On this page
How Coös County sells delinquent taxes
No tax lien certificate sale
The town or city tax collector executes the real estate tax lien to the municipality itself (RSA 80:61), and only the municipality, the county or the state may acquire a tax lien on land and buildings (80:63). The one exception is 80:80 II-a: a town, by majority vote at its annual meeting, or a city council, may authorize its governing body to transfer its liens during the two-year redemption period by public auction or advertised sealed bids, with minimum bids and terms the governing body sets, singly or in combination but never as a fractional interest. The buyer becomes the lienholder, receives any redemption payment and takes the collector's deed if the lien is not redeemed. The authority lasts one year unless voted 'indefinitely, until rescinded' (80:80 IV). No statewide list shows which towns have voted it; it is uncommon, so treat any New Hampshire lien auction as a single town's own event.
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Each town or city in Coös County (the City of Berlin, the county seat of Lancaster and the individual towns) sells its own tax-deeded land through its city council or board of selectmen. Coös County holds no tax sale.
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- No countywide sale date.
When it runs
Registration and deposit
Sale format and venue
Coös County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Coös County tax sale 2026 searches, use the city and town sources below rather than a copied parcel list, and confirm the parcel, registration cutoff, deposit, and payment deadline against the collector of the city or town holding the sale 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.
Confirm the advertised parcel list
Use City of Berlin tax-deeded property notice sign-up (Berlin only) as a starting reference. Check which sale or list it covers; a Lands Available or office information page is separate from an auction parcel list. Ask the sale office for the advertised parcels for the auction you plan to attend.Register to bid
Ask the collector of the city or town holding the sale how and when to register; many close registration days or weeks before the sale.Sale day
Each city or town picks its own platform or in-person venue. Confirm the date and registration window with that town’s collector before you bid.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, treat the collector of the city or town holding the sale as the source for which parcels are actually offered. Do not rely on a third-party list for final parcel status.
Before you bid in Coös County
4 checks
Confirm the parcel list before pricing
Open City of Berlin tax-deeded property notice sign-up (Berlin only). Confirm whether this reference contains the auction parcels or covers a different list. Get the advertised parcel list from the town before you price a bid, and recheck it before the sale.Check the state rules that change the bid
Read the New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire 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.
Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.
Local offices
County notes
- Coös County holds no tax sale; the City of Berlin and each town take land by tax deed and sell it on their own schedule.
- Berlin: the city sells land it took by tax deed. Sign up on the city website for Tax Deeded Property Notices to receive an email when tax-deeded properties become available; that notice is where Berlin's list reaches buyers.
- Berlin: the City Council discussed the sale of tax-deeded properties acquired in 2022 at its May 18, 2026 work session and properties acquired in 2023 at its September 9, 2026 work session, both in non-public session with no votes taken. No Berlin sale date has been announced.
- Berlin: the Tax Collector is at City Hall, 168 Main Street, Berlin, NH 03570, phone 603-752-6350, open Monday through Friday 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.
- Lancaster (county seat): the town posts no tax-deeded sale date or list. The Tax Collector is at 25 Main Street, Lancaster, NH 03584, phone 603-788-3391; ask whether the selectboard is offering any town-owned land.
- Gorham: the town posts no tax-deeded sale date or list. The Tax Collector is at 20 Park Street, Gorham, NH 03581, phone 603-466-9443 (town offices 603-466-3322), open Monday through Friday 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.
- Dalton: the town sold land taken by municipal tax deed at a public auction on December 7, 2024 at the Dalton Municipal Building, run by NH Tax Deed & Property Auctions, a private firm that also runs town auctions elsewhere in New Hampshire. That sale was absolute with no minimum bid and a 10% buyer's premium. The firm's schedule lists no upcoming Coös County sale.
- Northumberland (Groveton): the Town Clerk/Tax Collector is at 19 Main St, Groveton, NH 03582, phone 603-636-1450 ext. 2 or 3. The town posts no tax-deeded sale list.
- Columbia: the Board of Selectmen has sold tax-deeded land by accepting a written purchase offer ($18,000 for a Marsh Road parcel in June 2021), and on June 11, 2025 it accepted a tax collector's deed on about 9 acres on Fish Pond Road. Columbia posts no sale list; ask the selectmen's office about town-owned land.
- Colebrook: the Tax Collector is at 17 Bridge Street, Colebrook, NH 03576, phone 603-237-4142. The town posts no tax-deeded sale list; ask the office whether any town-owned land is being offered.
- Whitefield, Jefferson, Carroll, Randolph, Shelburne, Milan, Dummer, Errol, Stark, Stratford, Pittsburg, Clarksville, Stewartstown and the county's other towns publish no tax-deeded sale date or list on their town websites. Call the town's selectboard office and watch local legal notices for an auction or sealed-bid offering.
- Before a town offers tax-deeded land it must give the former owner 90 days' notice and a chance to repurchase (RSA 80:89), so a listed parcel can be withdrawn.
New Hampshire rules
- Redemption
- Redemption is open until the collector's deed is given, which cannot happen before two years from the lien's execution and requires 30 days' prior notice to the owner and mortgagees. Partial payments are accepted and are refunded if the deed issues before full redemption. If the town refuses the tax deed, the right to redeem continues indefinitely with interest still running. Once the deed issues, redemption ends; the former owner keeps only the repurchase right of 80:89, which is not redemption and costs more.
- Deed deposit
- No statewide deposit rule; the governing body sets deposit, registration and payment terms under 80:80 II. Read the town's terms of sale.
- Surplus proceeds
- For land acquired by tax deed, the town may keep from the sale only its 'back taxes, interest, costs and penalty' (80:88 I), defined in 80:90 to include the unpaid taxes and interest, the taxes and interest that would have accrued while the town owned the land, statutory fees, the town's legal costs, its costs of owning and selling the land (insurance, maintenance, repairs, marketing), and a penalty equal to 10 percent of the assessed value at the date of the tax deed, adjusted by the equalization ratio. Any excess must be paid into the superior court for the county within 60 days of the buyer's settlement by a bill of interpleader naming the former owners and everyone with a recorded interest; the court divides it by ownership and lien interests at the time of the tax deed, and money no one validly claims goes to the town. Where there were no record lienholders and the owners are easily identified and located, the town pays them directly without a court filing. The town's duty to distribute proceeds, and the former owner's repurchase right, end three years after the tax deed is recorded (80:89 VII), so a sale made later than that owes nothing under 80:88. These sections were last amended in 2016, and no act of the 2023 through 2026 sessions changes them after Tyler v. Hennepin County (2023), so the three-year cutoff and the 10 percent penalty remain in the statute.
What the deed conveys: No action may contest the lien's execution or the collector's deed after 10 years from the deed's recording (80:78), so a title examiner will look closely at the notice steps within that period: without the mortgagee notices of 80:65 and 80:66, no collector's deed based on the lien is valid against the mortgagee. After the tax deed the town may treat the land as its own (80:91). The statute does not prescribe what warranties, if any, the town's deed carries; read each town's terms, and order a title search and budget for a possible quiet-title action. See the due diligence guide.
Frequently asked questions
Does Coös County, New Hampshire sell tax liens or tax deeds?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Where can I find the Coös County tax sale list?
Verified Oct 6, 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 office that runs the sale before you bid.
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