Grafton County, NH tax sales

Local offices

County notes

• •Grafton County does not hold tax sales. Each town and the City of Lebanon sells land it has taken by tax deed, on its own schedule.
• •Canaan: the town has scheduled a public auction of seven town-owned vacant residential lots for Saturday, October 24, 2026, at 10:00 AM, with registration from 9:00 AM, at the Canaan Emergency Operations Center, 52 NH Route 118, Canaan.
• •Canaan: JSJ Auctions of Epping (603-734-4348) runs the Canaan sale in person. The property list, with map and lot numbers, acreage, assessed values and per-lot deposits, appears in the town's auction brochure.
• •Canaan: deposits run from $1,000 to $5,000 per lot, the balance is due within 30 days, a 10% buyer's premium applies, and lots are sold as-is by deed without covenants, subject to town confirmation.
• •Canaan: the auction notice describes the lots as town-owned and does not say how the town acquired each one. Ask the Canaan Town Clerk, P.O. Box 38, Canaan, NH 03741, 603-523-4501, for details.
• •Dorchester: NH Tax Deed & Property Auctions runs a Dorchester town-owned property auction on Saturday, November 7, 2026, at Dorchester Town Hall, 24 Town House Road, Dorchester. Registration starts at 2 PM and the auction at 3 PM. The offering is a 3-bed, 1-bath manufactured home on 0.55 acres at 79 Streeter Woods Road (Tax Map & Lot 406-31).
• •Dorchester: the sale is live with online and absentee bidding available, a refundable $1,000 deposit is required to bid, a 10% buyer's premium applies, and the property is sold as is, where is. Contact the auctioneer at (603) 301-0185 to arrange online or absentee bidding.
• •Haverhill (county seat), Lebanon, Hanover, Plymouth, Littleton, Bristol, Lincoln, Enfield and the county's other towns post no current tax-deeded property sale or list on their town websites. Call each town's selectboard office or tax collector and watch local newspaper legal notices for auction or sealed-bid announcements.

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.N.H. RSA 80:69, redemption before the collector's deed at 14 percent a year on the whole recorded lienN.H. RSA 80:69Verified Sep 28, 2026

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.N.H. RSA 80:80, town or city disposal of tax liens and tax-deeded property: vote required, public auction or advertised sealed bids, minimums and terms set by the governing bodyN.H. RSA 80:80Verified Sep 28, 2026

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.N.H. RSA 80:88, municipal recovery from a tax-deeded sale limited to back taxes, interest, costs and penalty; excess paid into superior court by interpleaderN.H. RSA 80:88Verified Sep 28, 2026

Governing statute

N.H. RSA 80:80N.H. RSA 80:80, town or city disposal of tax liens and tax-deeded property: vote required, public auction or advertised sealed bids, minimums and terms set by the governing bodyN.H. RSA 80:80Verified Sep 28, 2026

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.N.H. RSA 80:78, no action to contest the lien or collector's deed after 10 years from the deed's recordingN.H. RSA 80:78Verified Sep 28, 2026 See the due diligence guide.

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