Summers County, WV tax sales
Tax Sale Atlas maps the Summers 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 Summers County, seat of Hinton: 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
- No Summers County auction date is posted.
- Format
- In person
- Registration
- Register with the State Auditor, not with Summers County.
- County office
- 304-466-7112
On this page
How Summers 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
- Frequency
- annual
- Typical timing
- No Summers County auction date is posted.
- Registration
- Register with the State Auditor, not with Summers County.
- 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 Summers County. Pre-registration is online at wvsao.gov and one sign-up covers every West Virginia county for the year: "Pre-registration will allow the bidder(s) to sign up one time per year for all counties within the state. Please note, multiple companies must be registered individually." A bidder who has not pre-registered may instead execute a notarized affidavit on the day of the sale. The form asks for the name exactly as you want it to appear on the deed, an agent or representative name, full contact details and any prior Bidder ID, and it requires certifications that you have not defaulted on payment for a prior auction purchase, that you are current on real property tax in every West Virginia county, that you have no code enforcement violation history, and, for a company, that the entity is registered with the West Virginia Secretary of State and authorized to do business in the state. Registration questions go to the Auditor's land department at 304-558-2251 or 877-982-9148.
Sale format and venue
Summers County tax sale list and auction calendar
For Summers 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 State Auditor Land Sale Listings and Certified to State search (statewide) for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.Register to bid
Sale day
No Summers County auction date is posted. 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 as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.
Before you bid in Summers County
4 checks
Start with the live sale list
Pull the current advertised parcels from State Auditor Land Sale Listings and Certified to State search (statewide). 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 Summers County. Pre-registration is online at wvsao.gov and one sign-up covers every West Virginia county for the year: "Pre-registration will allow the bidder(s) to sign up one time per year for all counties within the state. Please note, multiple companies must be registered individually." A bidder who has not pre-registered may instead execute a notarized affidavit on the day of the sale. The form asks for the name exactly as you want it to appear on the deed, an agent or representative name, full contact details and any prior Bidder ID, and it requires certifications that you have not defaulted on payment for a prior auction purchase, that you are current on real property tax in every West Virginia county, that you have no code enforcement violation history, and, for a company, that the entity is registered with the West Virginia Secretary of State and authorized to do business in the state. Registration questions go to the Auditor's land department at 304-558-2251 or 877-982-9148.
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
- The Summers County sheriff does not run the tax lien auction. Senate Bill 552, effective June 10, 2022, abolished the sheriff's sale and replaced it with a single annual auction conducted by the West Virginia State Auditor in the county courthouse. Sheriff Justin L Faris still mails the tax tickets, collects the taxes and advertises the delinquent list, so anything describing an October or November Summers County sheriff's tax sale is describing repealed law, not an event you can bid at.
- Summers County publishes no tax sale list, and its public notices page carries no tax sale material. The list reaches bidders in three places instead: the sheriff's delinquent advertisement in the county's legal newspaper, the Auditor's notice of auction run in that same paper before the sale, and, online, the statewide Land Sale Listings and Certified to State search at wvsao.gov. Search the Certified to State inquiry by county and tax year to see which Summers County parcels have been certified to the Auditor and their status.
- Split your questions between two offices. Call the Summers County Sheriff's Tax Office at 304-466-7112, 120 Ballengee Street, Suite 101, Hinton, about a current bill, the amount owed on a delinquent parcel, and paying it off before certification. Call the State Auditor's land department at 304-558-2251 or 877-982-9148 about the auction date, bidder registration, redeeming after a sale, and buying parcels that went unsold.
- The auction is held in the Summers County Courthouse at 120 Ballengee Street in Hinton, the same building as the County Commission and the sheriff's tax division. The sheriff's law enforcement division sits separately at the Summers County Judicial Annex, 123 Temple Street, Suite 100, and does not handle tax questions; use the Ballengee Street tax office.
- Check what a parcel owes before the sale at the Summers County Tax Inquiry, summers.wvsheriff.com, which searches unpaid tickets by year, owner name, ticket number, map-parcel or book-page and shows amounts billed, paid and due. It is a bill lookup, not the auction list.
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 Summers County, West Virginia sell tax liens or tax deeds?
When is the Summers County tax certificate sale?
I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?
Where can I find the Summers 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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