Clarion County, PA tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •The Tax Claim Bureau has moved back into the Clarion County Courthouse in Clarion from the county complex in Shippenville. Confirm the office location before visiting to register.
• •Director is Megan Parker Kerr, reachable at [email protected]. The office fax is (814) 297-1395.
• •The Bureau collects delinquent real estate taxes for the county, 34 municipalities, and 9 school districts in Clarion County.
• •Taxes are delinquent if not paid by December 31 of the current year, and unpaid taxes are returned to the Tax Claim Bureau during January. Interest accrues at three quarters of one percent per month, or 9% per year.
• •Properties reach the upset sale list after two years of delinquency. The county stops accepting personal and business checks from listed owners after May 31, taking only cash, money orders, or certified checks.
• •Posting and newspaper publication of sale properties happen in July in The Leader Vindicator and the Jeffersonian Democrat, so the list firms up mid summer.
• •The county posts a monthly "Current List of Past Due Real Estate Taxes" updated on the first of each month, and warns that appearing on it does not mean a property is up for sale, only that a balance is owed.
• •Repository bids are accepted in person at the Tax Claim Bureau office at any time using the county's Bid Sheet for Repository of Unsold Property. A current repository list is posted in the county document center.
• •The Important Dates block on the county page is still headed 2025 while its September entry matches the current calendar (Monday the 21st, registration due Friday, September 11). The document center entry dated 7-28-26 gives the sale as September 21, 2026 at 10am. Confirm the year's exact date with the Bureau before relying on it.
• •The published Judicial Sale Conditions document is an undated form that still carries 2021 in its template text and lists the Bureau at Suite 22. The department page gives the current address as Suite 21, so treat the conditions PDF as procedural guidance rather than a current date or address source.

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.Real Estate Tax Sale Law section 501 - who may pay off a tax claim before sale, and the rule that there is no redemption after the actual sale72 P.S. 5860.501Verified Aug 9, 2026

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.Real Estate Tax Sale Law section 601 - the upset sale is scheduled no earlier than the second Monday of September and before October 172 P.S. 5860.601Verified Aug 9, 2026

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.Real Estate Tax Sale Law section 205 - the five-part distribution priority for tax-sale proceeds and the three-year cutoff on an owner's surplus claim72 P.S. 5860.205Verified Aug 9, 2026

Governing statute

72 P.S. 5860.101 et seq.Real Estate Tax Sale Law section 102 - definitions of "Delinquent", "Actual sale", "County" and "Owner"72 P.S. 5860.102Verified Aug 9, 2026

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.

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