Warren County, PA tax sales
How tax deed sales work in Warren County, seat of Warren: 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
- Upset sale scheduled for September 28, 2026.Monday · 2026
- Format
- In person
- County office
- 814-728-3415
On this page
How Warren County sells delinquent taxes
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Warren County Tax Claim Bureau
- Frequency
- annual
When it runs
Registration and deposit
Registration is required for both the upset and judicial sales, and is not required for repository bids. Upset sale pre-registration "is required to bid, and will open 30 days prior the sale date"; judicial registration opens one month before that sale. The registration form and affidavit are posted on the Tax Claim page, and the upset procedure sheet states that "All registrations must be done in person. None are accepted via mail." Repository buyers instead submit a bid form for each parcel they want.
Sale format and venue
Warren County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Warren 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 2026 upset sale list (Times Observer notice, PDF) for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Ask the county office how and when to register; many counties close registration days or weeks before the sale.Sale day
Upset sale scheduled for September 28, 2026. 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 Warren County Tax Claim Bureau as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Warren County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from 2026 upset sale list (Times Observer notice, PDF). Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
Registration is required for both the upset and judicial sales, and is not required for repository bids. Upset sale pre-registration "is required to bid, and will open 30 days prior the sale date"; judicial registration opens one month before that sale. The registration form and affidavit are posted on the Tax Claim page, and the upset procedure sheet states that "All registrations must be done in person. None are accepted via mail." Repository buyers instead submit a bid form for each parcel they want.
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.
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County offices
Tax sale office
County notes
- Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. Philip J. Gilbert is Director of Tax Claim at 814-728-3415, with fax 814-728-3419, and Emily Darts is department secretary at 814-728-3490.
- Sale lists are advertised in the Warren Times Observer. The upset list is usually published the first week of July, and the 2026 list ran on July 3, 2026 grouped by township, borough and City of Warren ward with an approximate upset price per parcel. The county says an updated upset list "will be uploaded periodically starting mid August", so the parcel count shrinks right up to sale day as owners pay, enter agreements or file bankruptcy. A judicial list is printed at least 30 days before that sale.
- Repository bids are accepted through the last county business day of the month, then presented to the county, township and school district for approval, a process the Bureau says can take several months. No money is collected until all three approve. On approval the buyer pays the bid plus a $70.75 recording fee, $10 UPI fee, $25 deed fee, 2 percent transfer tax and a $15 demolition fee, so the county's own example turns a $250 bid into $375.75. Parcels shaded gray on the repository list already have a pending bid and should not be bid on.
- Under Section 619.1 a successful bidder must certify that they are not delinquent on real estate taxes in any taxing district where the property sits and have no municipal utility bills more than one year outstanding. The Bureau provides the certification at the sale, after the winning bid.
- A federal tax lien creates a 120-day right of redemption in favor of the federal government after a judicial sale, letting the agency buy the property from the winning bidder at the bid price. The Bureau warns bidders not to improve or demolish during that window.
- Owners can still contest a completed sale in court, most often by claiming defective notice. If the court sets the sale aside, the purchaser's money is returned.
- No owner of record may bid on their own property, and all properties are sold subject to existing tenancies and occupancy.
- Bid4Assets carries a notice-of-sale listing for a Warren County, Pennsylvania live tax deed sale that shows the courthouse address at 204 4th Avenue and names Bid4Assets itself as the seller. The county's own documents describe live courtroom auctions with an auctioneer calling each parcel, so treat that listing as a notice only and register and bid through the Tax Claim Bureau.
- The judicial sale procedure sheet still directs readers to an older warrencopa.com tax claim address. The current page the Bureau maintains, and the one the upset sheet and the sale question-and-answer sheet both cite, is warrencountypa.gov/1200/Tax-Claim.
- Warren County moved from a single duplicate to a split duplicate for real estate tax billing in 2025. County and municipal bills open March 1 and school district bills open August 1. Taxes unpaid with the elected tax collector by December 31 are returned to the Tax Claim Bureau and become payable there on February 1 of the following year, which is the start of the delinquency clock that feeds the upset sale.
- For pre-bid research the Tax Claim page links the county's assessment data lookup, and the sale question-and-answer sheet points buyers to the Recorder of Deeds and the Prothonotary, both in the courthouse, for mortgages, liens and judgments. The Bureau states plainly that bidders may not enter a listed property before the 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.
- 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 Warren County, Pennsylvania sell tax liens or tax deeds?
How often does Warren County hold tax deed sales?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Where can I find the Warren 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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