Meigs County, TN tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •Clerk & Master is Donna Moore, email [email protected], fax 423-334-7209. Office hours posted on the county page are Monday through Friday 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, and Wednesday 8:00 am to 12:00 pm.
• •The Clerk & Master page lists the office's duties as maintaining Rule and Execution dockets for suits filed in Chancery, Probate and Domestic Court, attending court sessions, keeping minutes, investing idle funds, collecting filing fees and costs, and "conducting auctions of real and personal property when Ordered by the Court." That last duty is the mechanism a Meigs delinquent tax sale runs through, and it confirms the sale is court-ordered rather than calendared.
• •The 2026 delinquent tax suit is styled Meigs County, Tennessee, in its own behalf, on relation of its Trustee, and for the use and benefit of the State of Tennessee, and Town of Decatur, Tennessee, on relation of its Recorder v. Andre, Scott E., et al., No. 2025-CV-4864, before Chancellor Tom McFarland. Defendants include the United States of America and the State of Tennessee, which is the standard join of federal and state lienholders.
• •The county's delinquent tax attorney, per the order's signature block, is Eric Brooks, BPR# 031043, P.O. Box 851, Cleveland, TN 37364. Sale terms in Tennessee are commonly set by the delinquent tax attorney and the Clerk & Master when the sale is noticed.
• •Meigs County is not listed among GovEase's Tennessee jurisdictions, which cover the City of Jackson, Coffee, Decatur, Hamblen, Hawkins, Henry, Lawrence, Madison, Montgomery, Obion, Sullivan, Washington and Wayne, several of them Special Commissioner sale postings. The "Decatur" entry there is Decatur County, not the Town of Decatur that serves as Meigs County's seat. Absence from one platform does not by itself prove an in-person sale, so the auction format is left unrecorded.
• •The Trustee, Stacie Hyde, 356 Abel Ave Suite 5, Decatur, TN 37322, (423) 334-5119, [email protected], bills and collects current property taxes and administers state tax relief. The Trustee page says nothing about delinquent tax sales, so the Clerk & Master is the office to contact. Current-tax search and payment run through the Citizens portal linked from the county's Pay Taxes page.
• •The county's Courts page is still an unfinished stub. It names Chancery, General Sessions, Circuit Criminal, Circuit Civil, Juvenile, Child Support and Domestic Relations courts, plus Chancellor Tom McFarland, General Sessions and Juvenile Judge Casey Stokes, Circuit Judge Mike Pemberton and Criminal Judge Jeff Wicks, but the detailed listing is marked as still to come, so no chancery sale procedure is published there.
• •Street-name spelling varies across official sources. The Clerk & Master page and the court order use 356 Abel Avenue / 356 Able Avenue, Suite 8 for the Clerk & Master, while the CTAS directory lists the county's main address as 356 Able Avenue, Suite 1, Decatur, TN 37322. Use Suite 8 for the Clerk & Master and Suite 5 for the Trustee.
• •Data quality is medium rather than high: the responsible office, its contacts, and a current county-published delinquent tax notice with a parcel list are all verified from official sources, but the sale date, auction platform, venue, bidder registration process, and deposit rule are published nowhere on those sources and were left unrecorded rather than estimated.

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.Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-2701, procedure for redemption, the tiered redemption periods, and the 12 percent interest owed the purchaser (2025 Tennessee Code)Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-2701Verified Aug 18, 2026

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.Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-2501, sale of land generally in delinquent tax suits (2025 Tennessee Code)Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-2501Verified Aug 18, 2026

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.Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-2702, motions claiming excess sale proceeds (2025 Tennessee Code)Tenn. Code Ann. 67-5-2702Verified Aug 18, 2026

Governing statute

Tenn. Code Ann. Title 67, Chapter 5, Parts 25-27Tennessee Code, free public access portal published by LexisNexis for the State of TennesseeTenn. Code Ann. Title 67, Chapter 5Verified Aug 18, 2026

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.

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