Lee County, VA tax sales
Tax Sale Atlas maps the Lee County, VA tax sale, one of 3,131 counties in 51 states. Virginia sells the property itself, so no statutory investor interest rate applies. Sale office, calendar and list locations read from the county’s own official pages on Aug 23, 2026.
How tax deed sales work in Lee County, seat of Jonesville: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.
New to tax sales? Read how Virginia tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.
- Next sale
- Lee County does not hold a fixed annual sale.
- Format
- In person
- County office
- 276-346-7716
On this page
How Lee County sells delinquent taxes
Tax deed sale
- Run by
- Lee County Treasurer (Nathan P. Cope) for the delinquent tax sale and the court-appointed Special Commissioner for the judicial sale, with Taxing Authority Consulting Services, PC serving as delinquent tax counsel and Special Commissioner; Lee Auction Company, Inc. calls both auctions
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- Lee County does not hold a fixed annual sale.
When it runs
Registration and deposit
Bidders appear at the Lee County Circuit Court courtroom on sale day and register at the podium with Lee Auction Company; no advance online registration is published. To qualify as a purchaser you may not owe delinquent taxes to Lee County or the Town of Pennington Gap and you may not be a defendant in a pending delinquent tax matter. At the Special Commissioner's judicial sale the high bidder puts down 25 percent of the bid or $1,000, whichever is higher, capped at $20,000 per parcel, plus a 10 percent buyer's premium subject to a $150 minimum; bids under $1,000 are paid in full at the auction, and the balance of the price plus deed recording costs is due to the Special Commissioner within 15 days of the Circuit Court confirming the sale. At the Treasurer's delinquent tax sale the high bidder pays the full bid, the same 10 percent buyer's premium with a $150 minimum, and recording costs on the day of the auction. Payment is by personal check, cashier's check or money order only, and no cash is accepted. Taxing Authority Consulting Services keeps an interested bidders email list that carries advance notice of Virginia sales, and its tax sales desk answers parcel questions at 804-548-4418 or taxsales@taxva.com.
Sale format and venue
Lee County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Lee 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.
Confirm the advertised parcel list
Use Tax auction notices and parcel schedules as a starting reference. Check which sale or list it covers; a Lands Available or office information page is separate from an auction parcel list. Ask the sale office for the advertised parcels for the auction you plan to attend.Register to bid
Ask the Lee County Treasurer how and when to register; many counties close registration days or weeks before the sale.Sale day
Lee County does not hold a fixed annual sale. The sale is live and in person; there is no online bidding platform. Confirm the venue and hour with the Lee County Treasurer before you go.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use the Lee County Treasurer as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Lee County
4 checks
Confirm the parcel list before pricing
Open Tax auction notices and parcel schedules. Confirm whether this reference contains the auction parcels or covers a different list. Get the advertised parcel list from the county before you price a bid, and recheck it before the sale.Confirm registration and deposit
Bidders appear at the Lee County Circuit Court courtroom on sale day and register at the podium with Lee Auction Company; no advance online registration is published. To qualify as a purchaser you may not owe delinquent taxes to Lee County or the Town of Pennington Gap and you may not be a defendant in a pending delinquent tax matter. At the Special Commissioner's judicial sale the high bidder puts down 25 percent of the bid or $1,000, whichever is higher, capped at $20,000 per parcel, plus a 10 percent buyer's premium subject to a $150 minimum; bids under $1,000 are paid in full at the auction, and the balance of the price plus deed recording costs is due to the Special Commissioner within 15 days of the Circuit Court confirming the sale. At the Treasurer's delinquent tax sale the high bidder pays the full bid, the same 10 percent buyer's premium with a $150 minimum, and recording costs on the day of the auction. Payment is by personal check, cashier's check or money order only, and no cash is accepted. Taxing Authority Consulting Services keeps an interested bidders email list that carries advance notice of Virginia sales, and its tax sales desk answers parcel questions at 804-548-4418 or taxsales@taxva.com.
Check the state rules that change the bid
Read the Virginia 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 Virginia 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.
Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.
County offices
Tax sale office
County notes
- Lee County contracts its delinquent real estate collections and its Special Commissioner work to Taxing Authority Consulting Services, PC, so the operative sale notice and parcel packet come from the law firm rather than from a county-run auction portal. Track both the Treasurer's Tax Auction page and the firm's Real Estate Tax Sale Resources calendar, and ask to be added to its interested bidders email list.
- Sales here are periodic rather than annual. Combined judicial and delinquent tax auctions were held in June 2023 and February 2025, both in the Circuit Court courtroom in Jonesville. When no date is posted, call the Treasurer at 276-346-7716 or the TACS tax sales desk at 804-548-4418 to ask when the next group of decrees of sale is expected to reach auction.
- The two sales that run back to back carry different money terms. The Special Commissioner's judicial sale takes a deposit at the podium and settles after the Circuit Court confirms the sale, while the Treasurer's delinquent tax sale of minimal-value parcels is paid in full on auction day. Read the packet that matches the parcel you want before you bid.
- Inventory skews to rural mountain acreage and small-town lots in the Yokum Station and Rocky Station districts and in the towns of Pennington Gap and St. Charles, with tracts ranging from fractions of an acre to well over a hundred acres. The notices warn that access is not guaranteed and that a parcel may be landlocked, so verify frontage and right of way on the ground before the sale.
Virginia rules
- Redemption
- An owner listed in the published notice, or the owner's heirs, devisees, successors, and assigns, may redeem the real estate at any time before the date set for the judicial sale by paying into court everything due. The right ends when the sale happens; Virginia gives no redemption window after the hammer falls and no redemption window after the deed is recorded. Partial payment does not redeem the property and does not suspend, invalidate, or moot the suit. The treasurer may instead suspend the sale by entering an installment agreement with the owner running no more than 72 months, and an owner who defaults on such an agreement cannot enter a second one for the same property for three years. The same before-the-sale-only cutoff applies on the nonjudicial track under 58.1-3975. What does exist after the sale is not redemption but a challenge: a party served only by publication may petition for a rehearing for good cause within 90 days of the order confirming the sale.
- Deed deposit
- No statewide deposit percentage exists. Article 4 leaves the terms of sale to the special commissioner and the confirming court, so the deposit is whatever the advertised terms of that sale require. Read the terms of sale published with each auction and confirm accepted funds with the commissioner before bidding.
- Surplus proceeds
- The former owner and the owner's heirs, devisees, successors, or assigns are entitled to the surplus received from the sale above the taxes, penalties, interest, reasonable attorney fees, costs, and any liens chargeable on the parcel, and the burden is on the claimant to prove entitlement. If no claim is made within two years after the date the sale is confirmed, the clerk pays the money to the locality that received the sale proceeds. On the nonjudicial track, excess proceeds sit in an interest-bearing escrow account held by the treasurer, a claimant has two years from the date of sale to schedule a hearing in circuit court, and unclaimed money goes to the locality's general fund.
What the deed conveys: Title from a judicial sale under Article 4 is governed by the principles that apply to purchasers at judicial sales of real estate generally. It bars the disabilities of parties defendant and is free of all claims of any creditor, person, or entity, including beneficiaries under any deed of trust or mortgage, provided that the creditor was made a party defendant. Easements recorded before the date of sale are not affected. That proviso is the whole risk: the wipe-out depends on the plaintiff having named and served every interested party, so check the pleadings and the title work behind the sale. See the due diligence guide.
Frequently asked questions
Does Lee County, Virginia sell tax liens or tax deeds?
How often does Lee County hold tax deed sales?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Where can I find the Lee County tax sale list?
Verified Aug 23, 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 office that runs the sale before you bid.
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