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Tax Sale Atlas

Day County, SD tax sales

How tax lien and tax deed sales work in Day County, seat of Webster: 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 calendar.
Format
In person
Registration
There is no standing bidder list or annual registration.
County office
(605) 345-9510
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 31, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Day County sells delinquent taxes

Tax certificate sale (lien)

In person
Run by
Day County Treasurer
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
Third Monday of December each year.
Registration
Day County publishes no bidder registration form, deposit schedule or bidder packet.
Next expected
on the third Monday in December, 2026 (window; exact date posts closer to the sale)
When it runs
Third Monday of December each year. South Dakota law directs the treasurer to offer a tax certificate at public sale at the courthouse "on the third Monday of December in each year, between the hours of nine a.m. and four p.m.", and allows the treasurer to adjourn the sale from day to day until every certificate has been offered. Day County publishes no separate sale calendar, so confirm the date and start time with the Treasurer's office in Webster.
Registration and deposit

Day County publishes no bidder registration form, deposit schedule or bidder packet. Bidding happens in the room at the courthouse. Call the Treasurer at (605) 345-9510 ahead of the December sale date to confirm whether certificates will be offered to outside bidders at all, what identification the treasurer wants, and the accepted form of payment. The winning bidder pays the full delinquent tax, interest and costs at the sale; a bidder who fails to pay lets the treasurer reoffer the certificate and can be sued by the county for the amount.

Sale format and venue
This is a bid down the interest rate auction held in person at the courthouse. There is no online platform and no third party auction site. Every bidder offers the same price, the full amount of delinquent tax, interest and costs, and competes only by naming the lowest annual interest rate they will accept, with the lowest rate taking the certificate. State law makes ten percent per year the highest valid bid and sets no minimum rate, so competitive bidding can run a certificate down toward zero. Decide in advance what rate is worth the capital. No premium is possible because the price is fixed at the delinquent amount. Notice of the sale and the list of unpaid parcels are published once during the week before the sale in the county's legal newspapers, the Reporter and Farmer and the Waubay Clipper, and the county does not post that list online. Certificates left unsold for want of bidders may afterward be bought over the counter at the Treasurer's office by anyone paying the taxes, penalty and costs due, and certificates the county took in may be assigned on the same terms. Both routes depend on the county commission having waived the state prohibition on selling certificates, so ask the Treasurer before counting on either. In person (Day County Courthouse, Webster)
Source: Treasurer's Office, Day County· Verified Aug 31, 2026

Tax deed sale

In person
Run by
Day County Board of Commissioners
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
No fixed calendar.
Registration
There is no standing bidder list or annual registration.
When it runs
No fixed calendar. When Day County takes a tax deed it must declare the property surplus and sell it within one year of the deed being issued. Each sale carries its own published notice, run at least twice, with the first notice at least thirty days before the sale date.
Registration and deposit

There is no standing bidder list or annual registration. Each surplus property sale is governed by the terms in its own published notice. One statutory bar applies to every bidder: if a person bidding at a county sale of tax deed property is not current on all property taxes due within the county, the county may refuse the bid.

Sale format and venue
South Dakota is a tax lien state, so this is not a routine calendar auction of delinquent parcels. Day County offers only property it has itself taken by tax deed, and it must put that property up within one year of taking the deed. Sale proceeds pay the taxes, penalty, interest, county liens and costs, and any surplus is returned to the prior owner of record, or transferred to the state Unclaimed Property Division if that owner cannot be found within one hundred eighty days. Watch the Reporter and Farmer and the Waubay Clipper for notices and ask the Auditor at (605) 345-9500 whether any tax deed property is pending sale. In person, at the location named in the published notice of sale
Source: SDCL 10-25-39.1, County Sale of Property Acquired by Tax Deed· Verified Aug 31, 2026

Day County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Day 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 or annual registration. Full requirements are in the sale card above.

  3. Sale day

    No fixed calendar. 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 Day County Board of Commissioners as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Day 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 or annual registration. Each surplus property sale is governed by the terms in its own published notice. One statutory bar applies to every bidder: if a person bidding at a county sale of tax deed property is not current on all property taxes due within the county, the county may refuse the bid.

  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)

Day County Treasurer

(605) 345-9510

711 W 1st Street, Suite 206, Webster, SD 57274

Official website

County notes

  • The Day County Courthouse at 711 W 1st Street in Webster holds every office a certificate buyer deals with. The Treasurer, in Suite 206, runs the December sale, issues the certificate, holds redemption money and later issues the tax deed. The Auditor, in Suite 204, receives the treasurer's return of sale on or before the last Monday of December. Treasurer Rhonda Zubke can be reached at (605) 345-9510 and Auditor Tonya Lehman at (605) 345-9500.
  • South Dakota law bars a county from selling any tax certificate unless the county commission has first adopted a resolution waiving that prohibition. Without the waiver the county itself is the holder of every certificate the treasurer issues, and an outside bidder has nothing to buy. Confirm with the Day County Treasurer at (605) 345-9510 that the commission has waived the bar before planning a trip to Webster for the December sale.
  • Redemption runs until the tax deed is issued rather than to a fixed calendar date. The redeeming party pays the certificate amount plus interest at the rate that was actually bid, running from the date of purchase, together with any subsequent taxes the holder paid and interest on those at the same rate.
  • A certificate holder cannot begin a tax deed proceeding until three years after the sale date, and the proceeding must be completed within six years of that sale. Pass the six year mark and the sale, the tax lien, and the lien for every subsequent tax the holder paid all cease and are forever barred, with the treasurer cancelling the certificate on the county record.
  • Before a deed issues the holder serves a notice of intention to take tax deed on the owner of record, the person in possession, the person the property is taxed to, and every mortgagee, lienholder, creditor of record and other interested party shown in the register of deeds, treasurer or clerk of courts records. Redemption stays open for sixty days after the affidavit of completed service is filed with the Treasurer. Recoverable service costs, including publication, the records search, locating owners and an attorney fee, are capped at four hundred dollars and are added to the redemption amount.
  • Taking the deed does not hand a private holder the land. Since February 2024 anyone other than a county who acquires South Dakota real property by tax deed must offer that property at public auction within one year, and takes back only what a redemption would have paid. Any surplus above taxes, penalty, interest, county liens and costs goes to the prior owner of record. Model a Day County certificate as an interest yield, not as a route to acquiring land below market.
  • The Day County Commission designated the Reporter and Farmer and the Waubay Clipper as the county's legal newspapers for 2026. Notice of the certificate sale, the list of parcels with unpaid taxes as of the close of business on the first Monday of December, the owner names and the amounts due all run in those papers in the week before the sale.

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 Day County, South Dakota sell tax liens or tax deeds?

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

When is the Day County tax certificate sale?

Third Monday of December each year. South Dakota law directs the treasurer to offer a tax certificate at public sale at the courthouse "on the third Monday of December in each year, between the hours of nine a.m. and four p.m.", and allows the treasurer to adjourn the sale from day to day until every certificate has been offered. Day County publishes no separate sale calendar, so confirm the date and start time with the Treasurer's office in Webster. The sale is held in person. Always confirm the exact date with the County Treasurer before the sale.

How often does Day County hold tax deed sales?

Day County holds its tax deed sale once a year. No fixed calendar. 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 Day 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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