When the sale is held
No certificate sale exists. Court-ordered tax sales are scheduled county by county after judgment in the delinquent tax suit; the suits themselves must be filed by the last business day of March following publication of the delinquency notice.
When taxes go delinquent
Property taxes are payable from the first Monday in October, and interest of 1.5 percent per month begins on the following March 1, which is the practical delinquency date in most counties (a county over 800,000 population with its own due dates may set a different accrual date). The taxes, penalties, interest, and costs are a first lien on the property from January 1 of the tax year. Once the delinquent list goes to the delinquent tax attorney and suit is filed, a further penalty of 10 percent of the base delinquent taxes accrues in most counties to cover prosecution of the suit, and the whole proceeding runs in rem against the parcel.
What happens after the sale
The county trustee delivers the delinquent tax list to a delinquent tax attorney between February 1 and April 1, and the attorney files the collection suit by the last business day of March following publication of the delinquency notice. Suits may be filed in chancery or circuit court and follow chancery procedure either way. Once the court ascertains the total amount due, it orders the parcel sold, subject to the right of redemption.
Leftover parcels between sales
Parcels the clerk bids in for the county at the tax sale pass to the county mayor's charge, and state law gives every county a resale process an investor can use. Any person may file a written offer for a parcel; the county publishes the offer's details, and for ten days anyone else may raise it by 10 percent or more, which forces a small auction among the offerors with the highest written offer as the starting bid. Unless county regulations say otherwise, parcels are offered with no minimum bid and no county board approval, and the county mayor may run the resale online instead. A parcel bought from the county before the redemption period has run stays subject to redemption.
These dates are the statewide statutory schedule. The exact auction date, registration deadline, and platform are set county by county, so confirm them on the Tennessee county pages before you plan a bid. For the mechanics of the sale itself, see how to buy in Tennessee.
Verified Aug 18, 2026 against Tennessee statutes.
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.