Clinton County, PA tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •Judicial sale: properties that do not sell at the upset sale move to the judicial sale, which conveys free and clear of most liens. The same in person Act 33 registration applies; for the 2024 judicial sale the cutoff was 5 p.m. on Friday, September 6, 2024. The Treasurer's page posts a Judicial Sale List, and the 2025 list is a claim list dated 6-16-2025 showing 21 records totaling $54,512.41 across Bald Eagle, Castanea, Chapman, Lamar, Noyes, Pine Creek, Porter and Woodward townships plus Renovo and South Renovo boroughs. Many entries are trailers rather than land.
• •Repository sale: parcels unsold at the judicial sale go to the repository and are bought by sealed bid, not at auction. The minimum bid is $500.00 per parcel or $100.00 per trailer, with no minimum for a municipality bidding within its own boundaries. Bids go to the Bureau in person or by mail in a sealed envelope marked "Repository Bid" with no notation of the property or amount, using the Bureau's Offer to Purchase from Repository form plus a notarized Affidavit of Bidder. On top of the bid the buyer submits a $150.00 administrative processing fee ($100 non-refundable), a $90.00 recording fee, a $15.00 UPI stamp fee and 2 percent real estate transfer tax. Bids are opened three times a year, on February 1, June 1 and October 1, and each accepted bid needs written consent from the County Commissioners and the other taxing bodies. The posted repository list is dated 05/20/2026.
• •Caution on third party listings: Bid4Assets carries a page titled "NOTICE OF SALE: Clinton County, Pennsylvania - Live Tax Deed Sale, 306 Deeds" that can read like an online auction. It is not one. The page states "Bid4Assets is providing this notice of sale strictly as a courtesy to our users. Bid4Assets is not conducting this public auction, nor are we affiliated in any way with this sale," lists the sale type as "Live/In Person," and carries a stale sale date of 09/18/23. Register with the Tax Claim Bureau in person; there is no way to bid on a Clinton County tax sale online.
• •The Treasurer's office is open 8:00am to 5:00pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and 8:00am to 12:30pm Wednesday. The Treasurer also serves as Tax Claim Director, and the sale notice is signed by Michelle L. Kunes, Treasurer and Director of the Tax Claim Bureau. The Bureau sells properties at least two years delinquent; the 2025 upset sale covered 2023 and prior year taxes, municipal claims and costs.
• •The county also runs a separate Sheriff Sale for mortgage foreclosures, which is a different process from the Tax Claim Bureau's tax sales and is not a tax sale.

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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