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Tax Sale Atlas

Cocke County, TN tax sales

How tax deed sales work in Cocke County, seat of Newport: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.

New to tax sales? Read how Tennessee tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.

Next sale
Biennial and typically in the fall.
Format
In person
Registration
No advance registration and no online bidding.
County office
423-623-6124
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Aug 18, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Cocke County sells delinquent taxes

No tax lien certificate sale

Tennessee counties enforce the tax lien through a delinquent tax suit and sell the property itself; no tax lien certificates are auctioned.

Tax deed sale

In person
Run by
Cocke County Circuit Court Clerk
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
Biennial and typically in the fall.
Registration
No advance registration and no online bidding.
Sale list
Delinquent tax sale notices and property list, Cocke County Circuit Court Clerk
When it runs
Biennial and typically in the fall. The Circuit Court Clerk's tax sale FAQ states 'The Cocke County Circuit Court generally holds a tax sale every other year' and, separately, 'We usually have a tax sale every other year. (Usually odd years.)' The most recently published sale list is headed '2023 Delinquent Tax Sale - Friday, October 27th, 2023 @ 9:00 A.M.' As of August 2026 no new sale date has been set: the office home page carries '2024 County and City Delinquent Tax Suits - Filed 4/1/2026' followed by 'Please check back again in the fall of 2026 for information on a new sale.' Sale information 'is usually posted about a month before the sale', the sale is advertised in the Newport Plain Talk 2 to 3 weeks beforehand, and the office says the list published on the website 'will be updated once a week (on Friday) until the date of the sale.'
Registration and deposit

No advance registration and no online bidding. The office's 'What Is A Tax Sale' sheet states 'You, will register the morning of the sale and upon registration be given a bid number, list of properties, and any other information that is available,' and answers 'No' to whether registration by mail is possible. The FAQ adds 'You or a representative must be present to bid. There is no need to register in advance. You will register in person on the day of the sale.' Payment is due the day of the sale in cash, cashier's check, money order, or credit/debit card with a card processing fee added; no financing is available and the office does not accept personal checks. Investors cannot bid without attending. To hear about future sales, call 423-623-6124 and ask for the person who handles delinquent taxes to be added to the email or mail notification list.

Sale format and venue
Cocke County runs a live, in-person auction and uses no online platform. The Circuit Court Clerk's tax sale FAQ states: 'The Cocke County Circuit Court generally holds a tax sale every other year for delinquent property taxes owed to Cocke County and the City of Newport. The property is sold at public auction, which takes place at the County Courthouse.' Online participation is expressly ruled out: the office's sale sheet asks 'Can I participate on-line?' and answers 'No, auction is in person only.' There is no over-the-counter path either; the FAQ answers 'Can I purchase property for back taxes over the counter?' with 'No, not in Tennessee. You must attend the tax sale.' The opening bid is 'the total amount of taxes, penalties and interest, attorney's fees, court costs, postage, and publication costs due in this office,' and the exact figure can be obtained from the Circuit Court Office at 423-623-6124 once the sale advertisement has run. Property sells as is; a title search is done but no one from the clerk's office or the county tax attorney's office views the property before the sale. The sale is not complete until the judge signs the Decree Confirming Sale, and a person entitled to redeem may do so within one year of that decree under Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-2701(b), refunding the purchaser the purchase price plus 12% per annum accruing from the date the purchaser pays the clerk until the motion to redeem is filed, plus any taxes paid since the sale. The office advises making no improvements during the redemption year because reimbursement is not assured. Taxes reach the Circuit Court one year after delinquency, and filing adds $44.00 in court costs, a 10% attorney fee on the base tax, and a $98.00 Notice of Reference title search, with 1.5% per month continuing to accrue. In-person auction at the Cocke County Courthouse
Source: Cocke County Circuit Court, Delinquent Tax Sale Information and Frequently Asked Questions (PDF)· Verified Aug 18, 2026

Cocke County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Cocke 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.

  1. Get the advertised list

    Use Delinquent tax sale notices and property list, Cocke County Circuit Court Clerk for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.

  2. Register to bid

    No advance registration and no online bidding. Full requirements are in the sale card above.

  3. Sale day

    Biennial and typically in the fall. 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 Cocke County Circuit Court Clerk as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Cocke County

  1. Start with the live sale list

    Pull the current advertised parcels from Delinquent tax sale notices and property list, Cocke County Circuit Court Clerk. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.

  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    No advance registration and no online bidding. The office's 'What Is A Tax Sale' sheet states 'You, will register the morning of the sale and upon registration be given a bid number, list of properties, and any other information that is available,' and answers 'No' to whether registration by mail is possible. The FAQ adds 'You or a representative must be present to bid. There is no need to register in advance. You will register in person on the day of the sale.' Payment is due the day of the sale in cash, cashier's check, money order, or credit/debit card with a card processing fee added; no financing is available and the office does not accept personal checks. Investors cannot bid without attending. To hear about future sales, call 423-623-6124 and ask for the person who handles delinquent taxes to be added to the email or mail notification list.

  3. Check the state rules that change the bid

    Read the Tennessee due-diligence checklist before bidding. Redemption, liens that survive a tax deed, title cleanup, and payment deadlines can change what a parcel is worth.

  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

Parcels struck to the county at the tax sale can be bought from the county afterward. Each county mayor must publish a list of county-held parcels by July 1 every year, and any person may file a written offer for one. The county advertises the offer, competing bidders have ten days to raise it by 10 percent or more, and the highest offer wins, sometimes through an online resale. A parcel bought before the redemption period expires stays subject to redemption. Ask the county mayor's office or the clerk and master where the current list is posted.

County-held parcel listings are published per county under Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-2511; find the current list on the county's website or newspaper of record

New to this path? Read how over-the-counter purchases work.

Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.

County offices

Tax sale office

Cocke County Circuit Court Clerk

423-623-6124

111 Court Avenue, Room 201, Newport, TN 37821

Official website

County notes

  • Cocke County departs from the usual Tennessee pattern: the delinquent tax suits and the tax sale run through the Circuit Court Clerk, not the Clerk and Master of Chancery Court. The Circuit Court Clerk's own description says 'Circuit Court handles payments of delinquent taxes, court costs, fines, fees and restitution as ordered by the Court,' and the office publishes all of the tax sale documents on cockecircuit.com. The current clerk is Kristy L. Nease.
  • The Cocke County Clerk and Master (Craig Wild, 301 Cosby Highway, Newport, TN 37821, phone 423-623-3321, fax 423-625-3642) handles Chancery, Probate and Child Support cases on the county website and makes no mention of tax sales.
  • Cocke County is not a GovEase county. It does not appear among the 24 Tennessee jurisdictions on GovEase's Tennessee county contact list. No auction platform of any kind was found for this county.
  • The sale collects delinquent taxes for both Cocke County and the City of Newport.
  • The document links on the 2023 sale post no longer work. Working copies of the FAQ and the 'What Is A Tax Sale' sheet remain on the office site in its September 2023 file archive, and the last published sale list in its October 2023 archive.
  • Parcels that do not sell are purchased by the county and held through the redemption period, after which the county uses or re-auctions them. The FAQ directs inquiries to the County Mayor's Office at 423-623-8791 or the County Tax Attorney at 423-623-7271.
  • The stated odd-year cadence has slipped. The last sale was 27 October 2023, and the 2024 county and city delinquent tax suits were filed 1 April 2026, with the office pointing readers to fall 2026 for a new sale.

Tennessee rules

Redemption
The right to redeem vests when the court enters the order confirming the sale and never runs longer than one year from that date. The court sets each parcel's period before the sale on a statutory scale: one year when the taxes were delinquent 5 years or less, 180 days when delinquent more than 5 but less than 8 years, 90 days when delinquent 8 years or more, and 30 days when the court finds the property vacant and abandoned. To redeem, an interested person files a motion in the same lawsuit and must first pay the clerk the full redemption amount; the purchaser then has 30 days after notice to ask the court for additional reimbursements. When the court declares the redemption complete, title divests from the purchaser and the clerk refunds the purchase money plus everything owed. During the redemption period the purchaser owes no duty to insure the parcel and is not liable for damage to it except from the purchaser's own intentional acts. Separately, a suit attacking the validity of the sale itself must normally be filed within one year of the confirmation order, with an absolute three-year outer limit.
Deed deposit
No statewide deposit percentage exists. The statute fixes the form of payment (cash, certified funds, cashier's check, money order, or ACH transfer) and each court sets its own payment terms. Davidson County takes cashier's checks only, Rutherford County requires payment by close of business the day after the sale, and counties selling through GovEase collect payment through the platform. Confirm the terms with the clerk and master that runs the sale before bidding.
Surplus proceeds
Sale proceeds pay the delinquent tax attorney, then court costs, then the taxing entities. Any excess is claimed by motion in the same case: remaining taxes are paid first, then lienholders in order of priority (pre-sale liens before post-sale liens), then the former owner. Filing the motion ends any remaining redemption period as to the movant. Excess proceeds nobody claims pass to the state under the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act.
Governing statute
Tenn. Code Ann. Title 67, Chapter 5, Parts 25-27

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 Tennesseerules and every county →

Frequently asked questions

Does Cocke County, Tennessee sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Tax deeds. Tennessee sells no tax lien certificates to investors; the county sells the property itself at a public tax sale.

How often does Cocke County hold tax deed sales?

Cocke County holds its tax deed sale once a year. Biennial and typically in the fall. 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. Tennessee's redemption rule: Up to 1 year from entry of the order confirming the sale, tiered by how long the taxes were delinquent. Call the Cocke County Circuit Court Clerk 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 Cocke County tax sale list?

Cocke County posts its tax sale list at cockecircuit.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 18, 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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