Essex County, VT tax sales

Local offices

County notes

• •Essex County has 13 organized towns, and each runs its own tax sale: Bloomfield, Brighton, Brunswick, Canaan, Concord, East Haven, Granby, Guildhall, Lemington, Lunenburg, Maidstone, Norton and Victory.
• •Concord: Delinquent Tax Collector Audra Girouard's most recent posted notice set a sale for Tuesday, August 8, 2023 at 10:00 A.M. at the Concord Municipal Building, 385 Main Street. The list of parcels appeared in that Notice of Tax Sale on the town website.
• •Concord treasurer's office: 802-695-2910, extension 23, 385 Main Street, P.O. Box 317, Concord, VT 05824. The town offers a delinquent tax payment agreement.
• •Canaan: Delinquent Tax Collector Dencie Cunningham decides when to hold a sale, generally for taxes two years in arrears with no payment plan. Sales typically happen during or after October.
• •Canaan advertises each sale list in the Colebrook Chronicle and on the town's Delinquent Tax Collector webpage. Call 802-266-8206 or write PO Box 4, Canaan, VT 05903.
• •Maidstone: the town website posts a Delinquent Tax Collector Report listing balances by taxpayer. The report as of August 31, 2026 totals $39,251.14.
• •Maidstone policy starts the sale process when taxes stay unpaid for two years, after Selectboard approval, and charges the owner sale costs including legal fees of up to 15 percent of the delinquent tax. Town office: 802-676-3210.
• •Guildhall, the county seat: the Town Treasurer serves as tax collector, and town policy considers a tax sale once two years of taxes remain unpaid. Office: 13 Courthouse Drive, P.O. Box 10, Guildhall, VT 05905, 802-676-3797.
• •Lunenburg: the town office at 9 West Main Street, PO Box 54, Lunenburg, VT 05906 (802-892-5959) accepts delinquent tax payments. No sale list is posted on the town site.
• •Brighton (Island Pond): contact the town office at 49 Mill Street, P.O. Box 377, Island Pond, VT 05846, 802-723-4405. No sale list is posted on the town site.
• •For Bloomfield, Brunswick, East Haven, Granby, Lemington, Norton and Victory, sale notices and lists appear in the local newspaper and at the town clerk's or collector's office.
• •The unorganized towns and gores of Averill, Ferdinand, Lewis, Avery's Gore, Warner's Grant and Warren Gore have no town office of their own; ask the county's supervisor of unorganized towns and gores about any sale there.
• •The owner, a lienholder or a mortgagee may redeem within one year of the sale by paying the sale price plus 1 percent a month or fraction of a month (32 V.S.A. 5260); the buyer receives a collector's deed only if no one redeems.

Vermont rules

Redemption

The owner, a lienholder or a mortgagee, or their representatives or assigns, may redeem within one year from the day of sale by paying or tendering to the collector who made the sale (or to the town clerk if the collector has died or left town) the sum for which the land was sold plus 1 percent a month, with a part month counted as a full month. The money is paid over to the buyer on demand and no deed is made. Between 90 and 120 days before the year ends the collector must send the owner, by certified mail, and post a warning stating the date redemption ends and the amount due. If no one redeems, the collector executes a deed to the buyer.32 V.S.A. § 5260, redemption within one year from the day of sale at 1 percent a month or fraction on the sum for which the land was sold; notice 90 to 120 days before the end32 V.S.A. § 5260Verified Sep 27, 2026

Deed deposit

No statute sets a deposit or registration requirement. The statutory return form records the sale as made 'for cash' to the highest bidder (§ 5255). Each town sets its own payment terms; read them in the town's notice.32 V.S.A. § 5252, collector's warrant and levy on real estate: $1,500 and more-than-one-year delinquency threshold, repayment-plan offer, recording, advertising and mailed notice32 V.S.A. § 5252Verified Sep 27, 2026

Surplus proceeds

On a parcel that is not redeemed, the part of the winning bid above the taxes, costs and fees goes to the former owner, not the buyer. No statute says so: §§ 5251 to 5263 are silent, and 2024 Act 106, 2025 Act 73 and 2026 Act 170 did not add a rule. The rule comes from the Vermont Supreme Court. In Bogie v. Town of Barnet, 129 Vt. 46 (1970), the court held that a town cannot take property at tax sale, sell it and keep the proceeds, and in Ran-Mar, Inc. v. Town of Berlin, 2006 VT 117, 181 Vt. 26, it confirmed that excess proceeds paid by a private investor at a tax sale must be paid over to the taxpayer when the taxpayer does not redeem and the property transfers, as the legislature's Act 106 Working Group reported. What is paid over is the excess sale proceeds, not the property's full equity; the working group was asked whether owners should recoup that equity, and as of the 2026 session no change has been enacted. If the property is redeemed, the whole sale price, overbid included, comes back to the buyer with interest (§ 5260(a)). A buyer's return on an unredeemed parcel is the property, never the overbid. By comparison, a sale on distraint of personal property returns the balance to the taxpayer by statute (§ 5193), and in a court foreclosure of the tax lien the commissioner disposes of any residue with the court's approval (§ 5061(b)). Ask the town how it holds and pays over the excess before bidding.Report of the Act 106 Working Group on Vermont's Abatement and Tax Sale Processes (Tax Sales and Tax Abatement), reporting Bogie v. Town of Barnet, 129 Vt. 46 (1970), and Ran-Mar, Inc. v. Town of Berlin, 2006 VT 117, 181 Vt. 26, on excess tax-sale proceedsVerified Sep 28, 2026

Governing statute

32 V.S.A. § 525232 V.S.A. § 5252, collector's warrant and levy on real estate: $1,500 and more-than-one-year delinquency threshold, repayment-plan offer, recording, advertising and mailed notice32 V.S.A. § 5252Verified Sep 27, 2026

What the deed conveys: The collector's deed conveys title against the person whose tax it was sold for and those claiming under that person (§ 5261). The tax is a first lien ahead of mortgages and other encumbrances (§ 5061(a)), and mortgagees and lienholders of record receive notice of the sale and may redeem. An action to recover land from a tax-deed grantee who holds a recorded deed, has been in continuous open possession and has paid the taxes must be brought within one year after it accrues (§ 5263), and a taxpayer's challenge to the collector's acts must be brought within one year from the levy (§ 5294). Real estate sold for unpaid PERSONAL property tax is sold subject to homestead rights and all existing liens and encumbrances (§ 5257). No statute gives the buyer possession during the redemption year.32 V.S.A. § 5263, one-year limit on actions to recover land from a tax-deed grantee in open possession who has paid the taxes32 V.S.A. § 5263Verified Sep 27, 2026 See the due diligence guide.

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