San Juan County, UT tax sales
Tax Sale Atlas maps the San Juan County, UT tax sale, one of 2,862 counties in 36 states. Utah sells the deed itself, so no statutory investor interest rate applies. Sale office, calendar and list locations read from the county’s own official pages on Sep 11, 2026.
How tax deed sales work in San Juan County, seat of Monticello: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.
New to tax sales? Read how Utah tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.
- Format
- County site
- County office
- 435-587-3225
On this page
How San Juan County sells delinquent taxes
No tax lien certificate sale
Utah sells no tax lien certificate to investors, and no statute in Title 59, Chapter 2, Part 13 creates one. The county treasurer holds the delinquency, interest and penalties accrue to the county, and the only instrument an investor can buy is the tax deed the county auditor issues at the May or June tax sale.
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- San Juan County Clerk/Auditor
- Frequency
- annual
When it runs
Registration and deposit
Bidding runs only through a Public Surplus buyer account, so register on Public Surplus before sale day rather than with the county. Bidders must be 18 or older, and the county holds a bidder legally and financially responsible for every parcel bid on, whether bidding personally or as an agent. No bid below the total tax, interest, penalty and administrative costs charged against the parcel is accepted, and the county says most property sells at market value. San Juan County warrants no parcel and leaves every title search to the bidder. The Board of County Commissioners or the Clerk may reject any bid, withdraw a parcel at any time before the tax deed issues, or close the auction. Tax sale questions go to the Clerk's office at 435-587-3223, extension 4.
Sale format and venue
San Juan County tax sale list and auction calendar
For San Juan 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 Delinquent property tax list, San Juan County Treasurer for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Ask the county office how and when to register; many counties close registration days or weeks before the sale.Sale day
Bidding runs on County site; check posted sale dates, registration status, and bidding windows there.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use San Juan County Clerk/Auditor as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in San Juan County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from Delinquent property tax list, San Juan County Treasurer. Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
Bidding runs only through a Public Surplus buyer account, so register on Public Surplus before sale day rather than with the county. Bidders must be 18 or older, and the county holds a bidder legally and financially responsible for every parcel bid on, whether bidding personally or as an agent. No bid below the total tax, interest, penalty and administrative costs charged against the parcel is accepted, and the county says most property sells at market value. San Juan County warrants no parcel and leaves every title search to the bidder. The Board of County Commissioners or the Clerk may reject any bid, withdraw a parcel at any time before the tax deed issues, or close the auction. Tax sale questions go to the Clerk's office at 435-587-3223, extension 4.
Check the state rules that change the bid
Read the Utah 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 Utah 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 properties
Utah sells no tax lien certificates, so there is nothing to buy over the counter between sales except land the county already owns. Any parcel offered at the tax sale with no purchaser is struck off to the county and fee simple title vests there. The county legislative body may then dispose of that property for a price and on terms it sets, with the county clerk executing the deed, and may also rent or lease it. Terms are set county by county and there is no statewide list, so ask the county auditor or clerk what the county holds from earlier tax sales and how it sells it.
New to this path? Read how over-the-counter purchases work. Every state has its own name for what goes unsold, so check what Utah calls its leftover tax-sale inventory.
Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.
County offices
Tax sale office
P.O. Box 338, Monticello, UT 84535 (Administration Building, 117 South Main, Monticello, UT 84535)
Official websiteCounty notes
- San Juan County runs one annual online tax deed sale on Public Surplus, and the county gives the slot as 8:30 am to 3 pm on May 23, with the legal notice published on or around May 1.
- The bid method here is highest dollar for the whole parcel, not the preferred-bid or smallest-portion method Utah Code 59-2-1351.1 lets a county adopt. Bidding starts no lower than the total tax, interest, penalty and administrative costs on the parcel, and the county says most property sells at market value.
- Expect cancellations. Anyone may redeem a parcel right up to the auction, and the county's 2024 sale was called off entirely after every listed parcel was redeemed, so reprice from the current notice rather than an earlier copy.
- The sale parcel list is not a standing page on the county website. It travels inside the Clerk/Auditor's notice of tax sale, published four weeks running in the San Juan Record in Monticello and posted to the county tax sale page for the year of the sale. The Treasurer separately posts an annual delinquent property tax list covering a far wider set of parcels than the ones that reach auction.
- The Clerk/Auditor conducts the sale and the Treasurer handles delinquency and payoff before it. Tax sale questions go to the Clerk's office at 435-587-3223 extension 4, and the Treasurer's office is at 435-587-3237 extension 2.
Utah rules
- Redemption
- Utah gives the buyer no post-sale redemption risk and gives the owner no post-sale second chance. Any person may redeem on behalf of the record owner at any time before the tax sale, which is held in May or June following the lapse of four years from the date the tax or tax notice charge became delinquent. Once the auditor accepts a bid and executes the tax deed, the conveyance is in fee simple and the deed is prima facie evidence of the regularity of everything that led to it. What replaces a redemption period here is a limitation period on challenges: an action or defense to recover, take possession of, quiet title to, or determine ownership of the property may not be brought against the holder of a tax title more than four years after the sale or conveyance, and that bar does not reach an owner who actually occupied the property within four years of the action, or a city or town asserting an equal or superior lien.
- Deed deposit
- Utah Code sets no statewide deposit. Each county fixes its own terms by ordinance and in the auction notice, and they differ: Salt Lake County requires a refundable 500 dollar deposit wired before bidding opens, while Utah County's notice warns only that bidders may be subject to nonrefundable fees or deposits depending on the bid method used. Confirm the deposit, the deadline for posting it, and whether it is refundable before you register.
- Surplus proceeds
- Sale money goes into the county treasury and the treasurer settles with the taxing entities and tax notice charge entities. Anything above the delinquent taxes, tax notice charges, penalties, interest and administrative costs is treated as unclaimed property under Title 67, Chapter 4a, the Revised Uniform Unclaimed Property Act, rather than paid out by the county as a surplus fund. A former owner therefore claims it through the state unclaimed property process, not from the auditor.
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 San Juan County, Utah sell tax liens or tax deeds?
How often does San Juan County hold tax deed sales?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Where can I find the San Juan County tax sale list?
Verified Sep 11, 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.
Browse all 29 Utah counties
Compare sale calendars, platforms, and rules across the state, or read the guides before you bid.