Lake County, SD tax sales
How tax lien and tax deed sales work in Lake County, seat of Madison: 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 annual date.
- Format
- In person
- Registration
- No advance registration or deposit is published.
- County office
- 605-256-7618
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 31, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page
How Lake County sells delinquent taxes
Tax certificate sale (lien)
- Run by
- Lake County Treasurer
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- Annual, on the third Monday of December.
- Registration
- There is no online bidding platform and no published pre registration packet.
- Next expected
- on the third Monday in December, 2026 (window; exact date posts closer to the sale)
- Sale list
- Public Notices
When it runs
Annual, on the third Monday of December. State law directs the treasurer to offer certificates 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 to adjourn the sale from day to day until every certificate has been offered. The list covers taxes still unpaid at the close of business on the first Monday of December.
Registration and deposit
There is no online bidding platform and no published pre registration packet. The sale is called in person at the Lake County Courthouse, 200 E Center St in Madison. Contact the Treasurer's office at 605-256-7618 ahead of the sale date to confirm whether certificates will be offered to outside bidders that year, what identification and payment the office accepts, and what time to arrive.
Sale format and venue
The sale is called live at the courthouse in Madison and there is no online auction. Notice of the sale is published once during the week before the sale in the county's legal newspaper, the Madison Daily Leader, and the treasurer also mails or transmits notice to the owner of record at least 14 days out, so parcels come off the list right up to sale day as owners pay. A winning bidder who fails to pay can have the certificate reoffered and can be sued by the county for the amount. Certificates that draw no bidder can be bought afterward at private sale at the Treasurer's office for the taxes, penalty and costs due, subject to the same commission resolution requirement that governs the December sale itself.
Source: SDCL Chapter 10-23, Sale of Real Property for Taxes and Assessments, South Dakota Legislature· Verified Aug 31, 2026
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Lake County Treasurer, with each sale approved and scheduled by the Lake County Commission
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- No annual date.
- Registration
- No advance registration or deposit is published.
- Sale list
- Public Notices
When it runs
No annual date. Auctions are set parcel by parcel after the county takes a tax deed, and state law requires the sale within one year of the deed being issued. Recent sales were fixed by commission motion for a weekday morning, including a 9:30 a.m. auction in the courthouse lobby on July 1, 2025.
Registration and deposit
Sale format and venue
These are parcels the county already owns after taking a tax deed, so you buy the property rather than a lien. The commission declares the parcel surplus, cancels the back taxes, sets a date and time by motion, and the notice is published at least twice with the first publication at least 30 days before the sale. Volume is low and sporadic, often a single lot: a July 2025 auction of two lots in the South Side View subdivision brought $23,000. A former owner can still stop the auction by asking the commission to reconvey the parcel and paying every delinquent tax, interest and cost in full, so a scheduled parcel can come off the calendar. Watch the commission agendas and minutes as well as the legal notices, because that is where these sales are set.
Source: Commission Minutes for 2025, Lake County· Verified Aug 31, 2026
Lake County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Lake 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.
Get the advertised list
Use Public Notices for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Sale day
No 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.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use Lake County Treasurer, with each sale approved and scheduled by the Lake County Commission as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Lake County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from Public Notices. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
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
- Bidding runs down, not up. The price is fixed at the full delinquent taxes, interest and costs on the parcel, so there is no premium to bid. Bidders compete only on the annual interest rate they will accept, the lowest rate stated wins, and no bid above 10 percent per year is a valid bid. South Dakota sets no minimum rate, so a contested parcel can be bid all the way down toward zero and 10 percent is a ceiling rather than an expected yield.
- Since 2006 a South Dakota county may not sell a tax certificate to an outside bidder unless the county commission has adopted a resolution waiving that prohibition, and absent that resolution the county itself holds every certificate the treasurer issues. Lake County's commission records show the county taking and holding the certificates, with the treasurer filing the annual tax sale certificate list with the board each January and the county later selling the deeded parcels at public auction. Call the Treasurer at 605-256-7618 before the December sale date to confirm whether any certificates will be offered to the public that year.
- The redemption window is long. A holder cannot begin the tax deed proceeding until three years after the sale date, and must complete it within six years of that date or the certificate, the tax lien and the lien for any subsequent taxes paid are cancelled and forever barred. A certificate the county assigns when it is already more than four years old runs on its own clock: one year from the assignment to commence the proceeding.
- The notice a holder serves before taking a deed is demanding. Personal service goes to the owner of record, the person in possession and the person the property is taxed to, while mortgagees, lienholders and other interested parties are served by certified mail or by publication once a week for two successive weeks in the legal newspaper. Redemption stays open until 60 days after the affidavit of completed service is filed with the Treasurer, and the treasurer prepares the deed immediately after that. Recoverable service costs, covering the records search, locating owners, publication, the affidavit and attorney fees, are capped at $400 in total.
- Redemption pays the rate you bid, not a statutory rate. The redeeming party pays the certificate amount plus interest from the purchase date at your winning rate, plus any subsequent taxes you paid with interest running from the date each became delinquent. The county commission may set a fee of up to $50 that is deducted from the proceeds paid to a certificate holder on redemption, and that fee cannot be charged to the property owner.
- Lake County's legal newspaper is the Madison Daily Leader, and the Auditor prepares the county's legal notices for publishing, so the tax certificate sale notice and any tax deed auction notice run there. The Foreclosures and Sheriff's Sales page on the county website lists mortgage foreclosure sales, which are a separate process and do not clear delinquent property taxes.
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 Lake County, South Dakota sell tax liens or tax deeds?
Lake County follows South Dakota's tax lien state system.
When is the Lake County tax certificate sale?
Annual, on the third Monday of December. State law directs the treasurer to offer certificates 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 to adjourn the sale from day to day until every certificate has been offered. The list covers taxes still unpaid at 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 Lake County hold tax deed sales?
Lake County holds its tax deed sale once a year. No 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 Lake County Treasurer, with each sale approved and scheduled by the Lake County Commission 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 Lake County tax sale list?
Lake County posts its tax sale list at lake.sd.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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