Berkeley County, SC tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •Berkeley County has a standalone Delinquent Tax Collector department, separate from the Treasurer. The Treasurer sends bills into execution after March 16 each year and the Delinquent Tax Collector takes over collection, seizure, advertising, the sale and post-sale title and deed work.
• •The sale is hybrid: a live courthouse-style auction at a county-announced venue with an online bidding option running concurrently. The county does not publish the name of its online bidding vendor, so verify the online registration route with the office.
• •The 2025 sale venue was the Azalea Ballroom at the Lowcountry Conference Center in Nexton, 406 Sigma Drive, Summerville, not the Moncks Corner county office. The department FAQ still names the older Moncks Corner administration building venue, so the FAQ and the news releases disagree and the annual release is the current word.
• •Registration closes about ten days before the sale and the county does not accept day-of registration. Only registered bidders are admitted to the room.
• •Land Sale runs first, Mobile Home Sale begins after it ends. There are separate Real Estate and Mobile Home listing pages under the Delinquent Tax Collector department, both of which are cleared between sales.
• •Redemption is one year from the sale date. The county FAQ gives quarterly redemption interest on the bid amount of 3, 6, 9 and 12 percent.
• •Overbid above taxes, penalties, levy costs and current year taxes is held as a balance in trust for the defaulting taxpayer, released if the property is conveyed to the bidder.
• •No-bid parcels go to the Berkeley County Forfeited Land Commission (County Treasurer, Auditor and Register of Deeds), which disposes of them after redemption under S.C. Code 12-51-55 and Title 12, Chapter 59.
• •The county website sits behind a bot challenge, so plain HTTP fetches of berkeleycountysc.gov return 403. A real browser session is needed to re-verify these pages.
• •The county site intermittently drops into a scheduled maintenance mode that returns a stub page; retry rather than treat it as a dead URL.

South Carolina rules

Redemption

The redemption clock runs twelve months from the date of the sale. Neither more than forty-five days nor less than twenty days before it ends, the delinquent tax officer must mail a notice by certified mail, return receipt requested and restricted delivery, to the defaulting taxpayer and to any grantee, mortgagee, or lessee of record, stating the amount needed to redeem and the date the tax title passes. Certified mail returned undelivered is not grounds to withhold the tax title. If nobody redeems, the officer makes a tax title to the purchaser within thirty days or as soon after that as possible. Personal property sold at a delinquent tax sale has no redemption period at all. A mobile or manufactured home runs on the same twelve-month clock, but it must not be moved from its location during that year without notice to the purchaser and the delinquent tax collector, and the redeeming owner or lienholder also owes the purchaser rent of up to one twelfth of the last completed tax year's taxes for each month between sale and redemption, with a ten dollar monthly minimum. If the official in charge discovers before the tax title passes that a required step was not properly performed, the official may void the sale and refund the bidder the amount paid plus the interest the county actually earned on it.S.C. Code Ann. 12-51-90, the twelve-month redemption right and the quarterly interest scheduleS.C. Code Ann. 12-51-90Verified Aug 6, 2026

Deed deposit

South Carolina fixes no percentage deposit. The successful bidder pays the full amount of the bid on the day of the sale in legal tender, meaning cash, a cashier's check, a certified check, or a money order. If a defaulting taxpayer has more than one item advertised, the officer stops selling once enough has been raised to cover the delinquent taxes, assessments, penalties, and costs.S.C. Code Ann. 12-51-50, public auction of the advertised property and accepted tenderS.C. Code Ann. 12-51-50Verified Aug 6, 2026

Surplus proceeds

If the sale produces more cash than the taxes, assessments, penalties, and costs, the overage first pays any outstanding municipal tax liens on the property. What remains belongs to the owner of record immediately before the end of the redemption period, to be claimed or assigned according to law. Those sums are payable ninety days after execution of the deed unless another claimant files a judicial action inside that window, and they escheat to the general fund of the governing body if neither claimed nor assigned within five years of the sale. Once a tax deed has been issued, Section 12-51-60 requires the delinquent tax collector to notify the defaulting taxpayer and that owner of record in writing that an excess is due, mailed the same certified way the officer took possession, and the cost of that notice counts as a cost of the sale.S.C. Code Ann. 12-51-130, delivery of the tax title, purchaser-paid costs, and the overage rulesS.C. Code Ann. 12-51-130Verified Aug 6, 2026

Governing statute

S.C. Code Ann. Title 12, Chapter 51South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 12, Chapter 51 (Alternate Procedure for Collection of Property Taxes)S.C. Code Ann. Title 12, Chapter 51Verified Aug 6, 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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