Day County, SD tax sales
Tax Sale Atlas maps the Day County, SD tax sale, one of 3,131 counties in 51 states. South Dakota sells tax lien certificates paying up to 10%. Sale office, calendar and list locations read from state rules plus what the county publishes on Oct 6, 2026.
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 certificate sale
- Third Monday of December each year.
- Format
- In person
- Registration
- The 2026 notice sets no advance registration step.
- County office
- (605) 345-9510
On this page
How Day County sells delinquent taxes
Tax certificate sale (lien)
- Run by
- Day County Treasurer
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- Third Monday of December each year.
- Next expected
- on the third Monday in December, 2026 (window; exact date posts closer to the sale)
When it runs
Registration and deposit
Day County publishes no bidder registration form, deposit schedule or bidder packet for the certificate sale. Bidding happens in the room at the courthouse. Call the Treasurer at (605) 345-9510 before the December sale date to confirm whether certificates will be offered to outside bidders at all, what identification is required, 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
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Day County Auditor, for the Day County Board of Commissioners
- Frequency
- annual
- Registration
- The 2026 notice sets no advance registration step.
When it runs
Registration and deposit
The 2026 notice sets no advance registration step. Properties go to the highest bidder at the courthouse door. The purchase price and all special assessments must be paid in full at the Treasurer's office by the end of the sale day, in cash or by cashier's check. The buyer receives a quit claim deed and pays a $30 recording fee. The commission may accept or reject any and all bids, and state law lets a county refuse a bid at a sale of tax deed property from anyone not current on property taxes owed in the county.
Sale format and venue
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.
Confirm the advertised parcel list
Use 2026 Notice of Sale of Property (sale held March 24, 2026) as a starting reference. Check which sale or list it covers; a Lands Available or office information page is separate from an auction parcel list. Ask the sale office for the advertised parcels for the auction you plan to attend.Register to bid
Sale day
Third Monday of December each year. The sale is live and in person; there is no online bidding platform. Confirm the venue and hour with the Day County Auditor before you go.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use the Day County Auditor as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Day County
4 checks
Confirm the parcel list before pricing
Open 2026 Notice of Sale of Property (sale held March 24, 2026). Confirm whether this reference contains the auction parcels or covers a different list. Get the advertised parcel list from the county before you price a bid, and recheck it before the sale.Confirm registration and deposit
The 2026 notice sets no advance registration step. Properties go to the highest bidder at the courthouse door. The purchase price and all special assessments must be paid in full at the Treasurer's office by the end of the sale day, in cash or by cashier's check. The buyer receives a quit claim deed and pays a $30 recording fee. The commission may accept or reject any and all bids, and state law lets a county refuse a bid at a sale of tax deed property from anyone not current on property taxes owed in the county.
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.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 liens and deeds
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)
County notes
- The Day County Courthouse at 711 W 1st Street in Webster holds every office a buyer deals with. The Treasurer, in Suite 206, runs the December certificate sale, collects redemption money and takes payment for county property sales. The Auditor, in Suite 204, advertises the March sale of county property. Treasurer Rhonda Zubke can be reached at (605) 345-9510 and Auditor Tonya Lehman at (605) 345-9500.
- Day County runs two different sales. The December certificate sale offers liens on delinquent parcels at a bid down interest rate. The March county tax sale at the courthouse door offers property the county already owns, sold outright to the highest bidder for a quit claim deed. A buyer looking for land, not yield, should watch the March sale.
- 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 holds every certificate the treasurer issues and an outside bidder has nothing to buy. Confirm with the Treasurer at (605) 345-9510 that the waiver is in place before planning a trip to Webster in December.
- 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 actually bid, from the date of purchase, together with any later 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. Past the six year mark the sale and the liens for the certificate and every later tax the holder paid are forever barred, and the treasurer cancels the certificate.
- 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 and other interested party of record. Redemption stays open for sixty days after proof of service is filed with the Treasurer. Recoverable service costs are capped at four hundred dollars and are added to the redemption amount.
- Taking the deed does not hand a private certificate holder the land. Since February 2024 anyone other than a county who acquires South Dakota real property by tax deed must offer it at public auction within one year, and keeps only what a redemption would have paid. Model a Day County certificate as an interest yield, not a route to land below market.
- The Day County Commission designated the Reporter and Farmer and the Waubay Clipper as the county's legal newspapers for 2026. The certificate sale notice and delinquent parcel list, and the notices for the March sale of county property, run in those papers.
South Dakota rules
- 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.
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 Day County, South Dakota sell tax liens or tax deeds?
When is the Day County tax certificate sale?
How often does Day County hold tax deed sales?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Where can I find the Day County tax sale list?
Verified Oct 6, 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 office that runs the sale before you bid.
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