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Tax Sale Atlas

Fall River County, SD tax sales

How tax lien and tax deed sales work in Fall River County, seat of Hot Springs: 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
Irregular rather than annual.
Format
In person
Registration
Bids are taken in person only.
County office
605-745-5145
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 31, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Fall River County sells delinquent taxes

Tax certificate sale (lien)

In person
Run by
Fall River County Treasurer
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
Annual, on the third Monday of December.
Next expected
on the third Monday in December, 2026 (window; exact date posts closer to the sale)
Sale list
Real Estate Taxes and Delinquency Publication, Fall River County Treasurer
When it runs
Annual, on the third Monday of December. South Dakota law directs the treasurer to offer 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 allows the sale to be adjourned from day to day until every certificate has been offered. Fall River County sells at the courthouse in Hot Springs.
Registration and deposit

Bidding is at the courthouse in person, with no online portal, pre-registration form or deposit published by the county. The auction runs the interest rate down rather than the price up: a bidder offers the full delinquent tax, interest and costs due, then states the lowest annual interest rate they will accept, and the lowest rate takes the certificate. No rate above ten percent a year is a valid bid, and the statute names no minimum rate. Call the Treasurer at 605-745-5145 ahead of the sale to confirm arrangements and the parcel list for the current year.

Sale format and venue
Fall River County keeps no standalone certificate sale page, so the parcel list is the delinquency notice the Treasurer is required to publish rather than a web listing. The county's designated official newspaper for 2026 is the Fall River County Herald-Star, and notice of the sale runs there in the week before it. The Treasurer's own guidance is blunt about the trigger: pay by October 31 to avoid additional costs, because a tax certificate will be issued on any property carrying delinquent taxes. Certificates that draw no bidder at the December sale are sold afterward at private sale at the Treasurer's office to anyone who pays the taxes, penalty and costs, which is the over-the-counter route here. Note that this office is also the treasurer for Oglala Lakota County, which has no courthouse of its own, so Oglala Lakota certificates are handled at the same Hot Springs counter. In person at the Fall River County Courthouse
Source: Real Estate Taxes, Fall River County Treasurer· Verified Aug 31, 2026

Tax deed sale

In person
Run by
Fall River County Board of Commissioners
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
Irregular rather than annual.
Registration
Bids are taken in person only.
Sale list
Tax Deed Auction Notices, Fall River County
When it runs
Irregular rather than annual. The county auctions tax-deed property once the Commission approves a batch for public sale, and the recent pattern is a single afternoon sale every year or two: June 18, 2026 at 2:00 p.m., May 4, 2023 (rescheduled from April 6 for weather) and August 19, 2021, each in the 2nd Floor Courtroom of the Fall River County Courthouse. Notices go up on the county news page weeks ahead.
Registration and deposit

Bids are taken in person only. You must attend or send an authorized representative to bid and pay. Winning bidders must be current on all of their own property taxes in Fall River County. The minimum bid is $400.00 plus a $30.00 recording fee, and the full purchase price is due on the day of the sale by cash, check, credit card (2.5 percent fee) or debit card ($2.50 flat fee).

Sale format and venue
The buyer receives a quit claim deed from the county, not a warranty deed, and the county states it makes no guarantee of absolute fee simple marketable title and recommends a quiet title action afterward. Delinquent taxes, penalties and interest are abated at the sale, but delinquent, current and future municipal special assessments stay with the property and become the buyer's obligation, and existing federal liens are presumed to survive. Each listed parcel carries a linked packet with the property card, photos and a map, and the notice flags which parcels have a building on them. The Commission approves and signs the deeds at its next meeting after the sale. Parcel questions go to the Treasurer at 605-745-5145; the Auditor at 605-745-5130 handles courtroom accessibility requests. In person at the Fall River County Courthouse, 2nd Floor Courtroom
Source: Tax Deed Auction Notice, Fall River County· Verified Aug 31, 2026

Fall River County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Fall River 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 Tax Deed Auction Notices, Fall River County for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.

  2. Register to bid

    Bids are taken in person only. Full requirements are in the sale card above.

  3. Sale day

    Irregular rather than annual. 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 Fall River County Board of Commissioners as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Fall River County

  1. Start with the live sale list

    Pull the current advertised parcels from Tax Deed Auction Notices, Fall River County. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.

  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    Bids are taken in person only. You must attend or send an authorized representative to bid and pay. Winning bidders must be current on all of their own property taxes in Fall River County. The minimum bid is $400.00 plus a $30.00 recording fee, and the full purchase price is due on the day of the sale by cash, check, credit card (2.5 percent fee) or debit card ($2.50 flat fee).

  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)

Fall River County Treasurer

605-745-5145

906 N. River St., Hot Springs, SD 57747

Official website

County notes

  • The Fall River County Treasurer's Office is responsible for both Fall River County and Oglala Lakota County. Oglala Lakota County is unorganized and has no courthouse and no treasurer of its own, so its certificate sale, redemptions and tax deeds are all handled at 906 N. River St. in Hot Springs.
  • The December sale is a reverse auction on the interest rate. The price is fixed at the full delinquent tax, interest and costs, so there is no premium to bid; the only variable is the annual rate you will accept. The lowest rate wins, ten percent a year is the ceiling, and the statute sets no floor, so a contested parcel can be driven down toward zero.
  • Certificates left unsold for want of bidders are sold at private sale at the Treasurer's office to any person who pays the taxes, penalty and costs. That is the over-the-counter path in this county, and it carries no rate bidding.
  • Redemption pays the sum listed on the certificate plus interest at the rate the certificate was struck off, running from the date of purchase, along with any subsequent taxes the holder paid and interest on those from the date of payment. A county commission resolution may deduct a fee of up to fifty dollars from redemption proceeds paid to a certificate holder other than the county, and that fee cannot be charged to the property owner.
  • A certificate does not ripen into a deed on its own. The holder must wait three years from the sale date, then serve a notice of intention to take a 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 expires sixty days after service is completed. The proceeding must be finished within six years of the sale, or the certificate, the lien and every subsequent tax paid on it are cancelled and forever barred.
  • Property tax amounts, payment history and receipts for individual parcels are available through the Treasurer's online property tax lookup. Payment of property taxes online is not yet live; the county says that is coming in 2027.
  • The Register of Deeds at 906 N. River St., 605-745-5139, records the deed and holds the mortgage and lien records that drive the tax deed notice list. That office keeps no searchable records online, so pre-bid title work means a phone call, an email or a visit in person.

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 Fall River County, South Dakota sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Fall River County follows South Dakota's tax lien state system.

When is the Fall River County tax certificate sale?

Annual, on the third Monday of December. South Dakota law directs the treasurer to offer 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 allows the sale to be adjourned from day to day until every certificate has been offered. Fall River County sells at the courthouse in Hot Springs. The sale is held in person. Always confirm the exact date with the County Treasurer before the sale.

How often does Fall River County hold tax deed sales?

Fall River County holds its tax deed sale once a year. Irregular rather than annual. 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 Fall River 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.

Where can I find the Fall River County tax sale list?

Fall River County posts its tax sale list at fallrivercountysd.gov. 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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