Sumter County, SC tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •Sumter County's delinquent tax sale is run out of the Treasurer's Office rather than a separate Delinquent Tax Collector department. The advertised property list is signed "CAROLINA B. RICHARDSON, COUNTY TREASURER/TAX COLLECTOR."
• •The sale is in person only. The county's bidder registration form states "Bids are in person only," and no online auction platform is referenced anywhere in the county's tax sale materials.
• •Venue is the Sumter County Civic Center at 700 W Liberty Street, Sumter, SC 29150, which is not the Treasurer's office address at 13 East Canal Street. Bid payment is taken at the Civic Center on the sale day.
• •The county advertises the list as the "2025 DELINQUENT TAX SALE" (the tax year in default) for a sale conducted in March 2026, so the year in the list title runs one behind the sale year.
• •The advertised list warns that taxpayers must pay by the Friday before the sale and that "NO PAYMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED ON THE DAY OF THE SALE," so the advertised parcel list shrinks up to the last business day.
• •No standalone Sumter County Forfeited Land Commission page was found on the county website. The Forfeited Land Commission opening bid and the no-bid fallback are described only inside the Treasurer's tax sale instructions.
• •The county website moved from sumtercountysc.org to sumtercountysc.gov, with a 301 redirect from the old domain. PDF links on the county site redirect to the county's CMS file host at cms7files.revize.com.
• •The advertised list, instructions and registration form are posted as year-specific PDFs whose filenames change each season, so the Delinquent Tax page is the durable entry point rather than any single PDF 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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