Boone County, WV tax sales
Tax Sale Atlas maps the Boone County, WV tax sale, one of 2,862 counties in 36 states. West Virginia sells tax lien certificates paying up to 12%, redeemable for Until the deed issues. Sale office, calendar and list locations read from state rules plus what the county publishes on Sep 11, 2026.
How tax lien sales work in Boone County, seat of Madison: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.
New to tax sales? Read how West Virginia tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.
- Next sale
- on a date the State Auditor sets, in practice between April and June, 2027
- Format
- In person
- County office
- 304-369-7394
On this page
How Boone County sells delinquent taxes
From lien to deed
West Virginia holds no separate tax deed auction. The deed goes to whoever bought the tax lien at the Auditor's auction, or bought the parcel afterward as unsold land, and it comes from the Auditor rather than from a second sale. Within 120 days after the Auditor approves the sale the purchaser must give the Auditor a list of everyone entitled to notice to redeem, supply the property's physical mailing address if it is Class II property, and deposit the cost of preparing and serving the notice. Miss that and the purchaser loses all benefits of the purchase. A written request filed within the following 30 days buys another 60 days, for one hundred dollars or ten percent of the amount paid at the sale, whichever is greater, plus a twenty five dollar certificate fee. The Auditor then serves the notice at least 45 days before the first day a deed may be issued, and no deed may issue sooner than 30 days after the notices were served.
Tax certificate sale (lien)
- Run by
- West Virginia State Auditor's Office, Land/County Collections Division. The Auditor conducts the auction at the Boone County Courthouse. The Boone County Sheriff's Tax Office remains the tax collector and publishes the delinquent list, but does not conduct the sale.
- Frequency
- annual
- Next expected
- on a date the State Auditor sets, in practice between April and June, 2027 (window; exact date posts closer to the sale)
When it runs
Registration and deposit
Register with the State Auditor, not with Boone County, using the land sale pre-registration form at https://www.wvsao.gov/CountyCollections/Registrations. The Auditor's page states that pre-registration "will allow the bidder(s) to sign up one time per year for all counties within the state", with multiple companies registered individually. The form asks for the exact name you want on the deed, an agent name, a prior year bidder ID if you have one, and your address, phone and email, plus certifications covering unpaid purchases at a prior auction of this kind, delinquent West Virginia real property tax as the most recent owner of record in any county, code enforcement history, pending code enforcement proceedings, and any failure in the preceding five years to comply with a raze or repair order. A bidder who has not pre-registered may instead complete and execute a notarized affidavit on the day of the sale affirming the same requirements. A domestic or foreign entity must show proof at registration that it is registered with the West Virginia Secretary of State and authorized to conduct business in the state. Pay before the close of business on the day of sale. Ask the Auditor's land department who to make the payment out to before you go: W. Va. Code 11A-3-45 says check, U.S. currency or money order payable to the Auditor, while the Auditor's own Land/County Collections page says check or money order payable to the sheriff of the county.
Sale format and venue
Boone County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Boone 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.
Get the advertised list
Use Land Sale Listings, West Virginia State Auditor (statewide, covers Boone) 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
on a date the State Auditor sets, in practice between April and June, 2027 The sale is live and in person; there is no online bidding platform. Confirm the venue and hour with the county office before you go.Confirm with the office
If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use West Virginia State Auditor's Office, Land/County Collections Division. The Auditor conducts the auction at the Boone County Courthouse. The Boone County Sheriff's Tax Office remains the tax collector and publishes the delinquent list, but does not conduct the sale. as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Boone County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from Land Sale Listings, West Virginia State Auditor (statewide, covers Boone). Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.Confirm registration and deposit
Register with the State Auditor, not with Boone County, using the land sale pre-registration form at https://www.wvsao.gov/CountyCollections/Registrations. The Auditor's page states that pre-registration "will allow the bidder(s) to sign up one time per year for all counties within the state", with multiple companies registered individually. The form asks for the exact name you want on the deed, an agent name, a prior year bidder ID if you have one, and your address, phone and email, plus certifications covering unpaid purchases at a prior auction of this kind, delinquent West Virginia real property tax as the most recent owner of record in any county, code enforcement history, pending code enforcement proceedings, and any failure in the preceding five years to comply with a raze or repair order. A bidder who has not pre-registered may instead complete and execute a notarized affidavit on the day of the sale affirming the same requirements. A domestic or foreign entity must show proof at registration that it is registered with the West Virginia Secretary of State and authorized to conduct business in the state. Pay before the close of business on the day of sale. Ask the Auditor's land department who to make the payment out to before you go: W. Va. Code 11A-3-45 says check, U.S. currency or money order payable to the Auditor, while the Auditor's own Land/County Collections page says check or money order payable to the sheriff of the county.
Check the state rules that change the bid
Read the West 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.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 certificates
A parcel that draws no bid at the auction, or whose sale the Auditor disapproves, or that was sold at one of these auctions within the previous five years and was neither redeemed nor deeded because the purchaser did not follow through, may be sold by the Auditor with no further auction and no additional advertising. The statute sets a priority order rather than a price contest: an owner of an adjacent tract or parcel first, with the highest bidder taking it if more than one adjacent owner wants the same parcel; then the municipality; then the county commission; then the West Virginia Land Stewardship Corporation for its Land Bank Program; then any willing buyer. The price is agreed between the Auditor and the buyer, and the Auditor may require the buyer to reimburse the cost of a licensed attorney's title examination or let the buyer engage one at their own cost. These are handled as written bids sent with a check to the Auditor's land department inside a bid window the Auditor posts on its Land/County Collections page.
New to this path? Read how over-the-counter certificates work. Every state has its own name for what goes unsold, so check what West Virginia calls its leftover tax-sale inventory.
Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.
County offices
Tax Collector (runs the certificate sale)
County notes
- Boone County publishes no tax sale list of its own, and the Boone County Sheriff's Tax Office site carries no tax sale page. The parcel list for the Boone auction is the State Auditor's: it appears under Land Sale Listings on the Auditor's Land/County Collections page at wvsao.gov while a Boone sale is pending, and in the notice of auction the Auditor publishes once a week for three consecutive weeks in a Boone County newspaper before the sale. Between sale cycles that listings section is empty, so an absent Boone list means no Boone auction is currently scheduled rather than a list held back.
- The Boone County Sheriff no longer runs the tax lien sale. Senate Bill 552 replaced the old sheriff's sale and the separate later Auditor sale of leftover parcels with, in the Auditor's words, "one sale conducted by the Auditor's Office in each county courthouse", once a year. The Sheriff's Tax Office keeps the authority and responsibility for collecting Boone County taxes and for publishing the delinquent legal advertisement in the newspaper around September 10. Any page advertising an October or November sheriff's tax lien sale in West Virginia is describing repealed law, not a date you can bid at.
- Split your questions between two offices. Ask the Boone County Sheriff's Tax Office at 304-369-7394, 200 State Street, Suite 102, Madison, WV 25130, about the current bill, the delinquent balance, and paying off before the account reaches the State. Ask the State Auditor's Land/County Collections Division at 304-558-2251 or toll free 877-982-9148, 1900 Kanawha Blvd. East, Building 1, Room W-100, Charleston, WV 25305, about the auction date, bidder registration, redemption after the sale, and buying parcels that went unsold.
- Boone parcels already certified to the State are bought by written bid through the Auditor rather than at the courthouse auction, and the Auditor posts the bid window on its Land/County Collections page. The window now open closes September 30, 2026 at 4:00 pm eastern time, with bids postmarked by the end of business that day. Unsold parcels are offered in a set order under Senate Bill 552: adjacent landowners first, then municipalities and land reuse agencies, then counties, then the land stewardship corporation, and then the public.
- Search Boone parcels before the sale using the Auditor's Certified to State inquiry at wvsao.gov, which covers tax years back to 2021 and can be filtered by county, district, map, parcel, certificate number, taxpayer, purchaser or bidder ID, with statuses including certified, sold, no bid, redeemed and deeded. For the current tax picture on a specific Boone parcel, the Sheriff's Tax Office online tax record search at boone.softwaresystems.com searches by name, account, tax year and ticket, or by district, map and parcel across the Crook, Danville, Madison, Peytona, Scott, Sherman, Sylvester, Washington and Whitesville districts.
- Redemption runs until the deed is issued to the purchaser rather than for a fixed number of months. The Auditor's property tax calendar states that after the sale an owner "can redeem for back taxes, plus fees, until the deed is issued to the new purchaser", and Senate Bill 552 added a repayment plan in three installments for certain owner occupied homes before the deed issues.
- County offices sit together at the Boone County Courthouse, 200 State Street in Madison: the Sheriff's Tax Office in Suite 102, the County Clerk in Suite 104 at 304-369-7330, and the Assessor in Suite 106. The Clerk's office, where deeds are recorded, is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.
West Virginia rules
- Redemption
- West Virginia runs three redemption windows in sequence, and only the last one involves the investor. Before the sheriff certifies the parcel to the Auditor on October 31, the owner pays the sheriff the taxes, interest and charges due. After certification and before the Auditor certifies the list for sale, the owner redeems from the Auditor at twelve percent a year on the amount due at certification. After the Auditor's auction, the owner or any other person entitled to pay the taxes, or any lienholder, may redeem at any time before a tax deed is issued. There is no fixed number of days on that last window: it closes when the deed issues, which cannot happen until the Auditor has served the notice to redeem at least 45 days beforehand and at least 30 days have passed since service. A person whose primary residence was sold may petition the Auditor, on grounds of financial hardship, to redeem in up to three installments before the deed is issued.
- Surplus proceeds
- The former owner is entitled to the surplus received at the Auditor's sale over and above the taxes and interest charged or chargeable including all costs of the sale, but only if a claim is filed in the circuit court of the county where the land sits within two years after the date the sale was confirmed. Unclaimed surplus is paid to the Auditor for credit to the general school fund.
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 Boone County, West Virginia sell tax liens or tax deeds?
When is the Boone County tax certificate sale?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Where can I find the Boone 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.
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