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Tax Sale Atlas

Bennett County, SD tax sales

How tax lien and tax deed sales work in Bennett County, seat of Martin: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.

New to tax sales? Read how South Dakota tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.

Next sale
No fixed annual date.
Format
In person
Registration
There is no standing bidder list.
County office
(605) 685-6092
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 31, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Bennett County sells delinquent taxes

Tax certificate sale (lien)

In person
Run by
Bennett County Treasurer
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
Annual, on the third Monday of December.
Registration
Registration runs through the Treasurer's office rather than any online system.
Next expected
on the third Monday in December, 2026 (window; exact date posts closer to the sale)
When it runs
Annual, on the third Monday of December. SDCL 10-23-7 directs that "On the third Monday of December in each year, between the hours of nine a.m. and four p.m. the treasurer shall offer at public sale at the courthouse a tax certificate for any real property that is liable for taxes of any description for the preceding year or years, and that remains due and unpaid," and lets the treasurer "adjourn the sale from day to day until all the tax certificates have been offered." The parcel list is drawn from taxes still unpaid as of the close of business on the first Monday of December.
Registration and deposit

Registration runs through the Treasurer's office rather than any online system. Call (605) 685-6092 well before the third Monday of December to confirm the sale is open to outside bidders that year and to learn what identification and form of payment the office accepts. Bidding is taken parcel by parcel, in the order the parcels appear on the tax list. The winning bidder pays the full amount of taxes, interest and costs at the sale; a bidder who fails to pay loses the certificate, and the treasurer may re-offer it or recover the amount by civil action. The treasurer collects ten dollars for each certificate issued.

Sale format and venue
Bennett County keeps no county website, so the Treasurer's office in Martin is the only place to get sale specifics. The sale is held in person at the courthouse and there is no online bidding platform. Bidding runs the interest rate down: a bidder pays the full delinquent tax, interest and costs and states the lowest annual interest rate they will accept, and the lowest rate stated wins. State law makes any bid above ten percent per year invalid and sets no minimum rate, so competition can carry a certificate down toward zero. Because the price is fixed at the amount owed, there is no premium to bid and no cash overbid. One rule decides whether an outside investor can buy at all: no South Dakota county may sell a tax certificate unless its board of county commissioners adopts a resolution waiving that prohibition, and without that resolution the county holds every certificate itself while the treasurer still mails and publishes all the required notices. Ask the Treasurer whether the Bennett County commission has adopted the waiver before planning a December trip. Where no bidder takes a parcel, the treasurer bids it off in the name of the county. A certificate that goes unsold at the public sale may then be bought at private sale at the Treasurer's office for the taxes, penalty and costs due, and the county may assign a certificate it already holds once every tax on the parcel, including taxes due but not yet delinquent, is paid in full.
Source: SDCL Chapter 10-23, Sale of Real Property for Taxes and Assessments, South Dakota Legislature· Verified Aug 31, 2026

Tax deed sale

In person
Run by
Bennett County Board of Commissioners
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
No fixed annual date.
Registration
There is no standing bidder list.
When it runs
No fixed annual date. A sale happens only after the county takes a tax deed on a parcel. The county must then declare the land surplus and sell it within one year of the deed being issued, publishing notice of the sale at least twice, with the first publication not less than thirty days before the sale date.
Registration and deposit

There is no standing bidder list. Bidding happens at the auction itself under the county surplus property rules in SDCL chapter 6-13. The county may refuse a bid from anyone who is not current on property taxes owed within the county.

Sale format and venue
This path sells land the county already owns after a tax deed, not a lien. The Treasurer prepares and signs the deed, the county auditor attests it, and the register of deeds records the transfer. Since February 2024 a private certificate holder who takes a tax deed must also offer that property at public auction within one year, with the former owner compensated out of the proceeds on the same measure as a redemption. Bennett County posts no online auction calendar, so call the Treasurer at (605) 685-6092 and watch the county's official newspaper for the published notice.
Source: SDCL Chapter 10-25, Tax Deeds, South Dakota Legislature· Verified Aug 31, 2026

Bennett County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Bennett 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. If the parcels on this list are vacant land rather than houses, what buying land at a tax sale hands you is the place to start.

  1. 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.

  2. Register to bid

    There is no standing bidder list. Full requirements are in the sale card above.

  3. Sale day

    No fixed annual date. 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.

  4. Confirm with the office

    If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use Bennett County Board of Commissioners as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Bennett County

  1. 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.

  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    There is no standing bidder list. Bidding happens at the auction itself under the county surplus property rules in SDCL chapter 6-13. The county may refuse a bid from anyone who is not current on property taxes owed within the county.

  3. Check the state rules that change the bid

    Read the South Dakota due-diligence checklist before bidding. Redemption, liens that survive a tax deed, title cleanup, and payment deadlines can change what a parcel is worth. Which liens survive is state law, so read what survives a tax deed in South Dakota before you price the title work.

  4. 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

Three routes exist and each runs through a county office. A certificate that stayed unsold for want of bidders must be sold at private sale at the treasurer's office to any person who pays the taxes, penalty and costs due. A person may also buy the county's interest in a certificate the treasurer bid off, by paying the taxes, penalty, interest and costs of sale and transfer plus every unpaid and subsequent tax, after which the treasurer assigns the certificate and the buyer holds the rights of an original purchaser. Both routes are closed in a county whose commissioners have not waived SDCL 10-23-28.1. Separately, tax deed property the county offered that drew no bid may be sold at private sale within twelve months for not less than ninety percent of the appraised value, without further publication or appraisal. Ask the county treasurer about certificates and the county auditor about unsold deeded parcels.

New to this path? Read how over-the-counter certificates work. Every state has its own name for what goes unsold, so check what South Dakota calls its leftover tax-sale inventory.

Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.

County offices

Tax Collector (runs the certificate sale)

Bennett County Treasurer

(605) 685-6092

201 State St., Martin, SD 57551. Mailing address: PO Box 606, Martin, SD 57551

County notes

  • Bennett County maintains no county website, so nothing about the sale is published online. The Treasurer's office in Martin is the working source for the sale date, the delinquent list and whether certificates are being offered to outside buyers this year.
  • The notice of sale and the parcel list run once during the week before the sale in the county's official newspapers. If no newspaper is published in the county, the treasurer instead posts the notice on the courthouse door for two weeks before the sale. The treasurer also mails or transmits notice to the owner of record at least fourteen days before the sale day.
  • Redemption stays open until a tax deed is issued. The redeeming party pays the sum shown on the certificate plus interest at the rate bid from the date of purchase, along with any later taxes the holder paid and the same rate of interest on those from the date of payment. The county commission may set a fee of up to fifty dollars that is deducted from the payout to a certificate holder on redemption, and no fee of that kind may be charged to the property owner.
  • A certificate holder cannot start tax deed proceedings until three years after the sale date, and rights under the certificate are barred if the proceeding is not completed within six years of the sale, with six further months allowed once the proceeding has been commenced in time. A certificate assigned by the county carries one year from the assignment to begin, plus six months to finish.
  • Before a deed can issue, the holder serves a notice of intention to take a tax deed on the owner of record, the person in possession and the person in whose name the property is taxed, by personal service in the manner used for a summons, with other interested parties served by summons, by certified mail, or by publication once a week for two successive weeks in the county's legal newspapers. The holder must also buy up any prior certificates the county holds. Redemption does not close until sixty days after the affidavit of completed service is filed with the Treasurer, and the treasurer prepares the deed immediately after those sixty days run.

South Dakota rules

Max interest rate
10% per year, bid down at auction
Minimum return
No statutory minimum; interest accrues at your bid rate
Redemption
There is no fixed redemption deadline that starts at the sale. SDCL 10-24-1 lets any person redeem at any time before a tax deed is issued. What sets the outer limit is the deed process: SDCL 10-25-1 bars the certificate holder from starting that process until three years after the certificate sale, and SDCL 10-25-8 keeps the right to redeem alive until sixty days after the affidavit of completed service of the notice of intention is filed with the treasurer. Missing that sixty-day window passes the owner's, mortgagee's and lienholder's interests to the certificate holder. After the deed is recorded, the former owner has one hundred eighty days to bring an action to recover possession or to avoid the deed, which is a limitation period rather than a further right to redeem.
Deed deposit
Chapter 6-13 sets no deposit for a cash sale. A buyer taking an installment contract must deposit the cash portion with the fiscal officer as soon as the bid is accepted, and the board can still decline to approve the sale, in which case the deposit is returned. A separate rule bars a bidder from the sale entirely: under SDCL 10-25-45 a county may refuse a bid from any person who is not current on all property taxes due within that county. Payment methods and any county-set deposit are county practice rather than statute, so confirm them with the county before bidding.
Surplus proceeds
The county first deducts the expenses of taking the tax deed and of the sale. What remains is prorated to the taxing districts on the levies for the most recent year included in the proceeds until all tax and interest is paid. Any surplus left after taxes, penalty, interest, county liens and other costs must be returned to the prior owner of record, and if that owner cannot be found within one hundred eighty days the surplus is transferred to the Unclaimed Property Division under SDCL chapter 43-41B. The same distribution binds a private buyer. SDCL 10-25-39.2, effective February 12, 2024, requires any person other than a county who acquires property by tax deed after being issued a tax certificate to offer that property at public auction under chapter 6-13 within one year of the deed, and entitles that seller only to compensation in the same manner as a redemption under SDCL 10-24-1. A South Dakota certificate is therefore a route to being paid what the certificate is worth, not a route to keeping the land.
Governing statute
SDCL Title 10, Chapter 10-23

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.

See the full South Dakotarules and every county →

Frequently asked questions

Does Bennett County, South Dakota sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Bennett County follows South Dakota's tax lien state system.

When is the Bennett County tax certificate sale?

Annual, on the third Monday of December. SDCL 10-23-7 directs that "On the third Monday of December in each year, between the hours of nine a.m. and four p.m. the treasurer shall offer at public sale at the courthouse a tax certificate for any real property that is liable for taxes of any description for the preceding year or years, and that remains due and unpaid," and lets the treasurer "adjourn the sale from day to day until all the tax certificates have been offered." The parcel list is drawn from taxes still unpaid as of the close of business on the first Monday of December. The sale is held in person. Always confirm the exact date with the County Treasurer before the sale.

How often does Bennett County hold tax deed sales?

Bennett County holds its tax deed sale once a year. No fixed annual date. Each sale is scheduled and advertised in advance, so check the county's tax deed calendar for the next posted date.

I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?

Often yes, by paying the overdue taxes, interest, and costs before the deadline. South Dakota's redemption rule: Open until a tax deed issues; a deed cannot be sought until 3 years after the certificate sale, and redemption then runs until 60 days after completed service of the notice of intention. Call the Bennett County Board of Commissioners as early as possible for your exact payoff and options; deadlines are strict. Free help: lawhelp.org lists legal aid programs, and consumerfinance.gov lists HUD-approved housing counselors.

Verified Aug 31, 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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