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Tax Sale Atlas

Deuel County, SD tax sales

How tax lien and tax deed sales work in Deuel County, seat of Clear Lake: 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
There is no fixed annual date.
Format
In person
Registration
Set county by county.
County office
(605) 874-2483
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 31, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Deuel County sells delinquent taxes

Tax certificate sale (lien)

In person
Run by
Deuel County Treasurer
Frequency
annual
Registration
There is no online bidder portal and no registration packet published in advance.
Next expected
on the third Monday in December, 2026 (window; exact date posts closer to the sale)
Sale list
South Dakota public notices, where the Clear Lake Courier sale notice is compiled
When it runs
South Dakota fixes the date by statute rather than by county calendar: the treasurer offers tax certificates "On the third Monday of December in each year, between the hours of nine a.m. and four p.m." at the courthouse, and "may adjourn the sale from day to day until all the tax certificates have been offered." That puts the next Deuel County sale on Monday, December 21, 2026. The county publishes no separate sale calendar, so confirm the hour and the room with the Treasurer at (605) 874-2483 before travelling to Clear Lake.
Registration and deposit

There is no online bidder portal and no registration packet published in advance. Bidding happens in person at the Deuel County Courthouse in Clear Lake, so plan to attend or send an agent. Call the Treasurer at (605) 874-2483 or write [email protected] to ask what funds the office accepts, whether any parcels will actually be offered this year, and how the office wants a buyer identified before the gavel.

Sale format and venue
Bidding is a rate auction, not a price auction. The treasurer offers each parcel in the order it appears on the tax list, and the winner is whoever pays "the full amount of the taxes, interest, and costs due, stating in the bid the lowest rate of interest per year at which the bidder will pay the taxes assessed and due against the property." South Dakota caps the yield at ten percent, since "No rate of interest higher than ten percent per year is a valid bid," and it sets no minimum, so bidding can run all the way down and a contested parcel can clear well below the cap. The amount you pay never moves, so there is no premium to bid and no overbid to lose. Yield is the only thing an investor competes on here. One thing to settle by phone before you plan the trip: state law says "no county may sell any tax certificate unless the board of county commissioners adopts a resolution waiving the provisions of this section," and absent that resolution the county itself holds every certificate it issues. Deuel County does not publish such a resolution, so ask the Treasurer directly whether certificates are offered to the public here. If a certificate is offered and nobody bids the amount due, the treasurer may bid it off in the name of the county. Certificates that go unsold for want of bidders may afterward be sold at private sale at the treasurer's office to any person who pays the taxes, penalty and costs due, which is the closest thing this county has to an over-the-counter path.
Source: Treasurer's Office, Deuel County· Verified Aug 31, 2026

Tax deed sale

Run by
County Treasurer issues the deed; the county then sells the property under SDCL chapter 6-13, commonly through the county auditor
Frequency
as needed
Typical timing
There is no fixed annual date.
Registration
Set county by county.
When it runs
There is no fixed annual date. A tax deed sale happens parcel by parcel once a tax deed has issued. The certificate holder, which in most counties is the county itself, may begin the deed process no sooner than three years and no later than six years after the certificate sale by serving a notice of intention to take a tax deed. Sixty days after the affidavit of completed service is filed with the treasurer, redemption ends and the treasurer prepares the deed. SDCL 10-25-39.1 then requires the county to declare the property surplus and sell it within one year, with notice published at least twice and the first publication at least thirty days before the sale. Watch the county auditor and the county's legal notices for those publications.
Registration and deposit

Set county by county. SDCL chapter 6-13 lets the county take sealed bids opened at a commission meeting, sell at public auction to the highest bidder, or list the property with one or more licensed real estate brokers, and it prescribes no bidder registration. Sealed bids are filed with the county's fiscal officer and opened at the time named in the published notice. The board may reject every bid, but if it accepts one it must be the highest. A county may refuse a bid from any person who is not current on all property taxes due within that county. No deposit is required on a cash sale; a buyer taking an installment contract deposits the cash portion as soon as the bid is accepted, and gets it back if the board declines to approve the sale. Confirm the bid form, the deadline and the payment terms with the county auditor.

Sale format and venue
This is the sale most South Dakota bidders can actually take part in, and it is a sale of the property itself rather than of a lien. Costs of taking the deed and of the sale come out of the proceeds first, the remainder is prorated to the taxing districts until all tax and interest is paid, and any surplus goes back to the prior owner of record, or to the Unclaimed Property Division if that owner cannot be found within one hundred eighty days. A private certificate holder who takes a tax deed is under the same duty: SDCL 10-25-39.2 requires that holder to offer the property at public auction within one year and entitles the holder only to what a redemption would have paid. Title vests in fee simple but remains subject to any claim the state or county has for taxes, liens or encumbrances and to past-due installments of municipal special assessments, and counties commonly convey by quitclaim deed and expect the buyer to bring a quiet title action. The former owner has one hundred eighty days after the deed is recorded to sue to recover possession or to avoid the deed.
Source: S.D. Codified Laws 10-25-39.1 - County acquisition of real property; sale of property; notice of sale requiredSDCL 10-25-39.1· Verified Aug 27, 2026

Deuel County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Deuel 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

    Use South Dakota public notices, where the Clear Lake Courier sale notice is compiled for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.

  2. Register to bid

    Set county by county. Full requirements are in the sale card above.

  3. Sale day

    There is 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 County Treasurer issues the deed; the county then sells the property under SDCL chapter 6-13, commonly through the county auditor as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Deuel County

  1. Start with the live sale list

    Pull the current advertised parcels from South Dakota public notices, where the Clear Lake Courier sale notice is compiled. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.

  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    Set county by county. SDCL chapter 6-13 lets the county take sealed bids opened at a commission meeting, sell at public auction to the highest bidder, or list the property with one or more licensed real estate brokers, and it prescribes no bidder registration. Sealed bids are filed with the county's fiscal officer and opened at the time named in the published notice. The board may reject every bid, but if it accepts one it must be the highest. A county may refuse a bid from any person who is not current on all property taxes due within that county. No deposit is required on a cash sale; a buyer taking an installment contract deposits the cash portion as soon as the bid is accepted, and gets it back if the board declines to approve the sale. Confirm the bid form, the deadline and the payment terms with the county auditor.

  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)

Deuel County Treasurer

(605) 874-2483

Deuel County Courthouse, 408 4th Street West, Clear Lake, SD 57226 (mailing: PO Box 680, Clear Lake, SD 57226)

Official website

County notes

  • Jennifer Mewherter is the Treasurer who runs the December certificate sale, with Brooke Pederson as deputy. Reach the office at (605) 874-2483 or [email protected].
  • The counter is in the Deuel County Courthouse at 408 4th Street West, Clear Lake, SD 57226, open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and closed on state and federal holidays. Mail goes to PO Box 680, Clear Lake, SD 57226.
  • The Clear Lake Courier is the county's official newspaper, designated by the commission at its January 6, 2026 organizational meeting, so that is where the sale notice and the delinquent list run. State law only requires the treasurer to publish that notice "once during the week before the sale in the official newspapers of the county," which leaves a very short window to work the list before bidding.
  • Check a parcel's tax standing ahead of the sale through the county's tax search on govtechtaxpro.com under Deuel County, and pay current taxes online at pay-deuelcounty.com.
  • Redemption pays the certificate amount plus interest at the rate you bid, running from the date of purchase, plus any later taxes you paid and interest on those at the same rate. A holder may pay subsequent years' taxes and add them to the certificate, which is how you keep a competing buyer out of your position.
  • You cannot move on a deed early. A tax deed proceeding may be started only after three years from the date of the tax certificate sale, and it must be started within six years of that date.
  • The notice of intention to take tax deed is served personally on the owner of record, the person in possession, and the person in whose name the property is taxed. Other interested parties are reached by certified mail or by publication once a week for two successive weeks in the county's legal newspapers. The right to redeem does not end until sixty days after the affidavit of completed service is filed with the treasurer.
  • The certificate has a hard expiry. If the deed proceeding is not completed within six years after the certificate sale, the sale, the tax lien and the lien for any subsequent taxes you paid "cease and are forever barred," and the treasurer cancels the certificate on the county record.
  • South Dakota rewrote the endgame in 2024. A private holder who does take a tax deed must offer the property at public auction within one year of the deed and is compensated only as if the certificate had been redeemed. A certificate here is a capped yield play, not a route to owning land cheaply, and you should underwrite it that way.
  • A county that takes a tax deed must declare the property surplus and sell it within one year, with notice published at least twice and the first publication at least thirty days before the sale. Because state law makes the county the holder of its own certificates unless the commission votes otherwise, that surplus sale is often the realistic way to buy tax-delinquent land in Deuel County. Ask the Auditor at (605) 874-2312 when one is scheduled and watch the Clear Lake Courier.
  • The county commission may set a fee of up to fifty dollars that is deducted from the money paid to the certificate holder on redemption. Ask the Treasurer what Deuel County charges, because it comes out of your return and cannot be passed to the property owner.

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

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

When is the Deuel County tax certificate sale?

South Dakota fixes the date by statute rather than by county calendar: the treasurer offers tax certificates "On the third Monday of December in each year, between the hours of nine a.m. and four p.m." at the courthouse, and "may adjourn the sale from day to day until all the tax certificates have been offered." That puts the next Deuel County sale on Monday, December 21, 2026. The county publishes no separate sale calendar, so confirm the hour and the room with the Treasurer at (605) 874-2483 before travelling to Clear Lake. The sale is held in person. Always confirm the exact date with the County Treasurer before the sale.

How often does Deuel County hold tax deed sales?

Deuel County holds its tax deed sale as needed. There is 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 County Treasurer issues the deed; the county then sells the property under SDCL chapter 6-13, commonly through the county auditor 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.

Where can I find the Deuel County tax sale list?

Deuel County posts its tax sale list at sdpublicnotices.com. Lists go up ahead of each sale and keep changing until the sale date, so confirm every parcel against the county's legal advertisement before you bid.

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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