Strafford County, NH tax sales

Local offices

County notes

• •Strafford County holds no tax sale. Each of its 13 towns and cities takes land by its own tax lien and deed and sells it on its own date, so check with the town where the parcel sits.
• •Rochester held a city-owned property auction on Saturday, May 31, 2025, at the James W. Foley Memorial Community Center, 150 Wakefield Street, through NH Tax Deed & Property Auctions. Its list of 11 properties, houses, a condo and land parcels, was posted on the auction page.
• •Farmington held a real estate auction on Saturday, October 5, 2024, at the Farmington Old Town Hall, 531 Main St., through NH Tax Deed & Property Auctions, with its property list and documents on the auction page. Farmington's October 24, 2026 auction is vehicles and equipment only.
• •New Durham auctioned a 6.5-acre town-owned lot on Quaker Road (TM 261-34) on Saturday, September 20, 2025, at New Durham Town Hall, 4 Main St. The town's notice linked to the auctioneer's page with the list and property documents. New Durham Town Hall: (603) 859-2091.
• •Barrington's most recent auction on the same auctioneer's calendar was November 5, 2022, at the Early Childhood Learning Center, 77 Ramsdell Lane, with its parcel list on the auction page.
• •These town auctions were absolute, with no minimum bid, a $1,000 registration deposit, a 10 percent buyer's premium, and closing within 30 days. Absentee and webcast bidding is available by contacting the auctioneer at (603) 301-0185.
• •Dover's City Clerk and Tax Collection office (288 Central Ave., 603-516-6018) collects property taxes. Dover's annual city auction page lists surplus goods; the city posts no tax-deeded property list, so ask the office and sign up for Finance bid notifications.
• •Durham, Lee, Madbury, Middleton, Milton, Rollinsford, Somersworth and Strafford publish no tax-deeded property sale or list online. Call each town's selectboard office or city hall and watch local legal notices.
• •The owner has two years from the tax lien to redeem. Before a town offers tax-deeded land it must give the former owner 90 days' notice and a chance to repurchase, and any excess from a sale goes to the superior court for the former owner.

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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