Allegheny County, PA tax sales
How tax deed sales work in Allegheny County, seat of Pittsburgh: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.
New to tax sales? Read how Pennsylvania tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.
- Next sale
- Date of Sale: Tuesday, September 8, 2026.Tuesday · 2026
- Format
- County site
- Registration
- Registration is required and closes well before sale day.
- County office
- 412-350-4739
On this page
How Allegheny County sells delinquent taxes
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Allegheny County Sheriff's Office
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- Date of Sale: Tuesday, September 8, 2026.
- Registration
- Registration is required and closes well before sale day.
When it runs
Registration and deposit
Registration is required and closes well before sale day. The Sheriff states, "If you would like to participate in the Virtual Sheriff's Sale, you must be registered with a Bidder Registration Number." Register through the Bidder Registration form on the Virtual Sheriff's Sale page. For the September 8, 2026 sale the county calendar opened registration on August 10 ("Sheriff Bidder Registration for the sale on September 8 will open at 10am on August 10") and closed it on August 31. Every field on the form must be completed, and bidders "shall provide a copy of their valid state ID or Driver's License to obtain a bidder number. Failure to do so will result in no admittance to virtual sale." The Sheriff's Sales page says to allow two business days for the bidder number while the Virtual Sheriff's Sale page says to allow five business days, so register early. Payment terms: "The day immediately following the sale, you must bring 10% of the bid price. The balance is due the Monday following the sale before 10:00 AM." The office accepts "cash, cashier's checks and money orders" made payable to the Treasurer of Allegheny County, and takes no personal checks. A deed is prepared thirty days after the sale once all required payments are received.
Sale format and venue
Allegheny County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Allegheny 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.
Get the advertised list
Use Sheriff's sale listings, results and bidder registration for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Sale day
Date of Sale: Tuesday, September 8, 2026. Bidding runs on County site; check posted sale dates, registration status, and bidding windows there.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use Allegheny County Sheriff's Office as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Allegheny County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from Sheriff's sale listings, results and bidder registration. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
Registration is required and closes well before sale day. The Sheriff states, "If you would like to participate in the Virtual Sheriff's Sale, you must be registered with a Bidder Registration Number." Register through the Bidder Registration form on the Virtual Sheriff's Sale page. For the September 8, 2026 sale the county calendar opened registration on August 10 ("Sheriff Bidder Registration for the sale on September 8 will open at 10am on August 10") and closed it on August 31. Every field on the form must be completed, and bidders "shall provide a copy of their valid state ID or Driver's License to obtain a bidder number. Failure to do so will result in no admittance to virtual sale." The Sheriff's Sales page says to allow two business days for the bidder number while the Virtual Sheriff's Sale page says to allow five business days, so register early. Payment terms: "The day immediately following the sale, you must bring 10% of the bid price. The balance is due the Monday following the sale before 10:00 AM." The office accepts "cash, cashier's checks and money orders" made payable to the Treasurer of Allegheny County, and takes no personal checks. A deed is prepared thirty days after the sale once all required payments are received.
Check the state rules that change the bid
Read the Pennsylvania due-diligence checklist before bidding. Redemption, liens that survive a tax deed, title cleanup, and payment deadlines can change what a parcel is worth.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 properties
Every Real Estate Tax Sale Law county keeps a repository for unsold properties: anything still unsold after a judicial sale is placed there, and the bureau must make the list available to the public during normal office hours. The bureau may, with the written consent of each taxing district where the property sits, set a minimum purchase price and accept any offer at or above it without court approval and without published notice. Consent is deemed given if a district does not respond within 60 days, and a district may require the buyer to appear before its governing body. The buyer files an affidavit with the same information a bidder registration requires. The deed conveys free and clear of all tax and municipal claims, mortgages, liens, charges and estates except separately taxed ground rents, and the bureau records it at the buyer's expense. A former owner may not buy their own property out of the repository. Prices, forms and turnaround are set county by county, so confirm the process with the tax claim bureau.
New to this path? Read how over-the-counter purchases work.
Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.
County offices
Tax sale office
County notes
- Allegheny County is a county of the second class, and the Real Estate Tax Sale Law expressly creates "a Tax Claim Bureau in each county, except counties of the first and second class." There is therefore no Allegheny County Tax Claim Bureau and no RETSL upset sale, judicial sale, or repository list here. Taxing bodies sue on their liens by writ of scire facias and the Sheriff sells the property.
- Tax driven sales are a large share of the calendar, not an occasional add on. The September 8, 2026 property listing carries 183 entries typed "Real Estate Sale - Sci Fa Sur Tax Lien" alongside mortgage foreclosure and municipal lien entries, with plaintiffs including the City of Pittsburgh, Woodland Hills School District, Liberty Borough and the City of Clairton.
- The opening bid is set by the plaintiff's counsel, not by a statutory formula. The Sheriff's FAQ says the attorney for "the particular lender, taxing body or a judgment holder determines the amount that they are seeking" and that "this bid will rarely be less than the cost and taxes that have been totaled to bring the property to sale." Each listing prints a "Cost & Tax Bid" figure.
- Verify the parcel on sale morning. The Sheriff's disclaimer states the site is "generally updated bi-weekly" and that "as to the Sheriff's sale bid lists, the accurate list is finalized the morning of the sale and is publicly available prior to the sale." A sale can also be stayed, postponed up to 130 days without a court order, stopped by bankruptcy, or paid off.
- A postponed sale keeps its original sale date and sale number, so track parcels by that original number rather than by the month they finally sell.
- The Sheriff's Office "strongly recommends doing a complete title search" and names the Register of Wills, Prothonotary, Recorder of Deeds, Federal Clerk of Courts, County Clerk of Courts, the County Treasurer and the local municipal and school tax collectors as the offices to check.
- The City of Pittsburgh Treasurer's Office runs a separate sale of its own for unpaid City of Pittsburgh real estate and School District taxes. The Sheriff's page directs those questions to the City of Pittsburgh Treasurer's Office at 412-255-2300. A parcel inside city limits can appear in either process.
- Several commercial foreclosure listing sites republish the Allegheny sale list. Bidding happens only through the Sheriff's registered bidder process, so work from the Sheriff's own sale listing rather than an aggregator copy.
Pennsylvania rules
- Redemption
- Under the Real Estate Tax Sale Law there is no redemption of any property after the actual sale. The owner's last opportunity is to discharge the tax claim before the sale by paying the claim and interest, any other tax claim or judgment and interest, all accrued unpaid taxes, and the record costs, or a smaller amount the political subdivision agrees to accept. Payment before July 1 of the year following the notice of claim removes the property from the sale list entirely. Payment after that date but before the actual sale still stops the sale, though the parcel and the owner's name may already appear in the advertising.
- Deed deposit
- The Real Estate Tax Sale Law sets no deposit and no buyer premium. What it does require is pre-registration: anyone intending to bid at an upset or judicial sale must appear and register at the bureau no less than 10 days before the sale, once per scheduled sale, and a county may charge a fee for filing the application. The application names the applicant, and every officer, member and manager if the applicant is not an individual, and carries an affidavit that the applicant owes no delinquent real estate taxes anywhere in the Commonwealth, has no municipal utility bill more than one year outstanding, is not acting for a person barred under section 601(d), and has not let an uncorrected housing code violation stand after conviction in the last three years. A false statement is prosecutable as a second degree misdemeanor. The bureau sends the list of registered bidders to every municipality in the county at least five days before the sale.
- Surplus proceeds
- The bureau distributes tax-sale proceeds, after repaying costs advanced by taxing districts and its own 5 percent commission, in this order: Commonwealth tax liens, then the taxing districts in proportion to the taxes due them, then taxing districts or municipal authorities for municipal claims, then mortgagees and other lien holders in order of record priority whether or not the sale discharged them, and last the owner of the property. Before paying anything out the bureau petitions the court of common pleas to confirm the schedule of distribution, and an absolute confirmation is final and nonappealable as to every listed distributee. If no claim for the owner's balance is presented within three years of the sale, that balance goes to the taxing districts pro rata and the county keeps the interest it earned.
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 Allegheny County, Pennsylvania sell tax liens or tax deeds?
How often does Allegheny County hold tax deed sales?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Where can I find the Allegheny County tax sale list?
Verified Aug 10, 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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