McKean County, PA tax sales
How tax deed sales work in McKean County, seat of Smethport: 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.
- Announcements
- No sale list is published on the county website.
- Format
- In person
- County office
- 814-887-3230
On this page
How McKean County sells delinquent taxes
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- McKean County Tax Claim Bureau
- Frequency
- annual
When it runs
Registration and deposit
Bidders must register before each tax sale and sign an affidavit stating they are not delinquent on any of their own taxes. The Bureau does not accept registrations on the morning of a sale except with prior approval, so request the affidavit and registration form from the office well ahead of the sale date.
Sale format and venue
McKean County tax sale list and auction calendar
For McKean 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
A county sale-list URL is still being verified. Use the office and platform details on this page before relying on a copied list.Register to bid
Ask the county office how and when to register; many counties close registration days or weeks before the sale.Sale day
The sale is live and in person; there is no online bidding platform. Confirm the venue and hour with the county office before you go.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use McKean County Tax Claim Bureau as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in McKean County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
The county sale-list URL is still being verified. Use the county office contacts below and confirm the advertised parcels directly before you price a bid.Confirm registration and deposit
Bidders must register before each tax sale and sign an affidavit stating they are not delinquent on any of their own taxes. The Bureau does not accept registrations on the morning of a sale except with prior approval, so request the affidavit and registration form from the office well ahead of the sale date.
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
- Angelia Tennies is Director and Heather Dynda is Assistant Director. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., closed holidays and occasionally closed from 12 to 1. The fax number is 814-887-3376.
- No sale list is published on the county website. The upset and judicial lists are released one month before each sale and a copy costs $8.00 from the Tax Claim Office. The repository list is kept available year round at no cost and can be picked up at the office.
- The Bureau collects delinquent real estate taxes for the county, 22 municipalities and 6 school districts. It says over 1,000 properties typically start the sale process each year, with roughly 800 on the upset list and fewer than 200 expected to reach the auction, since most are paid or stayed first.
- Bidders research title themselves. Liens are searched in the Prothonotary's office and mortgages in the Recorder of Deeds office, and the Bureau conveys only its taxable interest with no warranty as to title, description, condition or even the existence of a structure.
- The Tax Claim Bureau page links a delinquent balance lookup service, an online delinquent tax payment page and the county ArcGIS parcel viewer. Those serve owners and researchers and none of them is a bidding platform. Online payments are blocked for the week before a sale.
- Bid4Assets carries a listing headed as a notice of sale for a McKean County live tax deed sale at 500 West Main Street, Smethport, which is the courthouse address. Treat it as an advertisement for the county's live courtroom auction, not as an online bidding venue, because the Bureau states its upset and judicial sales are live auctions and no county page names an online platform.
- Winning bidders receive only a receipt on sale day. The deed follows months later after court confirmation, recording and processing through Assessment, and the Bureau advises insuring the property immediately but doing no work on it until the deed arrives.
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 McKean County, Pennsylvania sell tax liens or tax deeds?
How often does McKean County hold tax deed sales?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
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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