Land · Delaware tax sale guide

Sussex tax sales, Delaware

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Sussex County publishes the cleanest monition terms in this set, because its sheriff sales page quotes the two governing sections by number: redemption under section 8729 of Title 9, and finance approval under section 8726 of Title 9. The page also states the two timing points buyers most often get wrong. Confirmation of the sale occurs on the first Friday after the third Monday of the following month of sale, and for monitions an additional 60 days after confirmation is required before access to the property is granted, because the owner's redemption right runs from confirmation. The page is equally plain that a monition purchase is the purchase of property identified by tax parcel number, not the purchase of a tax lien, that the office does not guarantee clear title, and that all sales can be stayed until 9:30 a.m. on sale day.

Selling office: Sussex County Sheriff's Office, 22215 N. Dupont Boulevard, Georgetown, DE 19947, phone (302) 855-7830 for sheriff sales and foreclosures.

Next sale: Sheriff sale, Tuesday, November 17, 2026, 9:30 a.m., Sheriff's Office, Georgetown. Sheriff sales are held on the third Tuesday of every month promptly at 9:30 a.m. The next sale day is Tuesday, November 17, 2026, and the most recent was Tuesday, October 20, 2026. The monthly sale mixes writ types, so the sales listing for the month is the authority on whether monition properties are offered; the Superior Court excess proceeds list for Sussex County records sheriff sales on third Tuesday dates in 2026, including Tuesday, June 16, 2026.

Tuesday, November 17, 2026, 9:30 a.m., and the third Tuesday of every month thereafter, at the Sheriff's Office Main Conference Room, 22215 N. Dupont Boulevard, Georgetown. Read the monthly sales listing to confirm monition properties are in the sale.

Dates and deadlines

Sources: Sussex County, Sheriff Sales. Sussex County, Sheriff. Sussex County, Frequently Requested Numbers (Sheriff Sales and Foreclosures, (302) 855-7830). Delaware Code Online, Title 9, Chapter 87, Subchapter II, Monition Method of Sale. Delaware Code Online, Title 9, Chapter 87, Subchapter IV, Sale of Land for Delinquent Taxes in Kent and Sussex Counties. Delaware Superior Court, Project Rightful Owner, Sussex County list. Confirm with the selling office before relying on any date on this page: sales move, terms change, and parcels are pulled up to sale day.

Research Sussex parcels before you bid

A sale list gives you the parcels, the date, and the opening terms. It does not give you the owner, the value, or the rest of the picture: liens, foreclosure status, and parcel history. PropertyRadar is the data platform for that layer. It carries owner records, assessed and market values, foreclosure and tax data, and property history for parcels across Sussex, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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How Delaware monition sales work

• Delaware collects delinquent real estate taxes by a court sale under the monition method in Subchapter II of Chapter 87 of Title 9 of the Delaware Code, sections 8721 to 8733. The buyer purchases the real estate itself at a sheriff sale; there is no sale of liens or certificates.
• The county tax collecting authority files a praecipe in the office of the Prothonotary of the Superior Court for the county where the property is located, and the Prothonotary records it on a special judgment docket against the property for the taxes due (section 8722). The tax is a lien for 10 years from July 1 of the levy year, and in Kent and Sussex Counties the lien has priority over all other liens (section 8705).
• On a praecipe for monition, the Prothonotary issues a monition to the sheriff stating the judgment, including accrued penalty. The monition warns every person with an interest that the judgment must be paid within 20 days or the property may be sold for the judgment, accrued penalties and all costs (sections 8722 and 8723). The sheriff posts the monition on a prominent part of the property and returns it within 10 days; the posting is notice to the owner and all interested persons (section 8724).
• After 20 days following the sheriff's return, if the judgment and costs are not paid, a writ of venditioni exponas issues commanding the sheriff to expose the property to public sale (section 8725). Sales are held by the county sheriff on the county's published sale day, and in all three counties the full purchase price is due on the day of sale for a monition sale.
• Where the sale notice so provides, the county department of finance or chief county financial officer may approve or disapprove the final bid for any public purpose or reason, and counties may require bidders to be certified before they bid (section 8726). A municipality has the same approval and certification powers for its own monition sales under section 113 of Title 22.
• On the return of the writ, the Superior Court inquires into the regularity of the proceedings and either approves the sale or sets it aside (section 8731). The owner may then redeem at any time within 60 days from the day the sale is approved, by paying the purchaser the purchase price and 15 percent in addition, together with all costs (section 8729).
• If the property is not redeemed, the purchaser must petition the Superior Court for an order directing the sheriff to execute and deliver a deed (section 8728). The sale vests in the purchaser all the right, title and interest of the person assessed and of the owners, freed and discharged from liens and encumbrances (section 8727).
• Kent and Sussex Counties have a second statutory channel, the sale of land for delinquent taxes in Subchapter IV, sections 8771 to 8779, under which the tax collecting authority sells the land itself at the courthouse door, no deed issues until 1 year from the sale, the owner redeems at the purchase money with 20 percent interest, prior liens survive the sale, and any excess over the tax, costs and expenses is paid at once to the owner (sections 8704, 8776 and 8779). Neither county presents its published sheriff tax sales as sales under that channel.
• On a monition sale, proceeds above the judgment and costs are not kept by the county: in the published New Castle County practice, lien holders and homeowners contact the Sheriff's Office for proceeds remaining after distribution of the costs of the sale, and excess proceeds unclaimed after 90 days go to the Prothonotary for escrow and listing on the Superior Court Project Rightful Owner pages, which the Court maintains for all three counties. Delaware enacted no amendment to Chapter 87 after Tyler v. Hennepin County addressing surplus.

How buying works in Sussex

All bidders register between 9:00 a.m. and 9:30 a.m., prior to the start of the sale. Registration requires a 4,000 dollar deposit, paid with cash or a cashier's or certified check made payable to the Sheriff of Sussex County, and a driver's license or valid photo identification. Both are required to receive a bidder number, and a bidder number is required to place a bid. The deposit is held until completion of the sale and is refunded if the bidder is not a successful bidder, on return of the bid number.

• The full price is due on sale day Every Delaware monition term in this set requires 100 percent of the purchase money on the day of sale: at the time of sale in New Castle County, by 2:00 p.m. on the day of sale in Kent County, and by 3:00 p.m. on the day of sale in Sussex County. The 20 percent deposit structure in the same sheriff offices belongs to mortgage foreclosure sales and does not apply to a tax sale.
• Registration money is real money, in bank funds New Castle County requires verification of 10,000 dollars in certified funds at registration, collected only from the winning bidder, and takes no cash. Kent and Sussex Counties each require a 4,000 dollar deposit to register or to close a winning bid, in cash or bank funds as their pages state, and the Kent deposit is expressly non refundable.
• The government can reject your winning bid Where the sale notice carries the term, the county finance authority, or for a city sale the municipal finance director, may disapprove the final bid for any public purpose or reason, including your record on other property you own. Counties and the City of Wilmington may also require a bidder certificate before you may bid at all. A winning bid in Delaware is therefore an offer the government can refuse, not a completed purchase.
• Approval, redemption, then a petition: the deed takes months The sale is confirmed by Superior Court weeks after sale day, the owner then has 60 days from approval to redeem at the price plus 15 percent and costs (20 percent plus repair costs from a Wilmington city sale), and only after that window closes can the buyer petition the Court for a sheriff's deed. Price the wait, and the redemption risk, into the bid.

Terms: what a bid actually costs

Tax property that draws no approved bid

NOT PUBLISHED as a separate Sussex County procedure: the Sheriff's sources state no leftover list or discount channel, and all sales can be stayed until 9:30 a.m. on sale day. Under section 8726 of Title 9, if the Department of Finance or the chief county financial officer does not approve the final bid, the property may be exposed to another and as many succeeding sales as the county chooses. In the Subchapter IV channel, which Sussex County does not present as its operating channel, section 8773 provides that if a sale is set aside the Court may order another sale, and so on until the tax due be collected, and section 8779 requires any excess over the tax, costs and expenses of sale to be paid at once to the owner. Excess proceeds from Sussex County sheriff sales are published on the Superior Court Project Rightful Owner list for Sussex County.

Before you bid

• Learn which plaintiff is selling The same sheriff sale mixes mortgage foreclosures, judgments, county monitions and, in New Castle County, City of Wilmington monitions. The writ type and the approval term in each poster tell you whose sale it is, and the answer changes the redemption price, the approval authority and the prequalification rules. Read the poster, not just the address.
• Do your own title work; nobody guarantees it The Kent and Sussex sheriffs state expressly that they do not guarantee clear titles. A monition sale discharges liens by statute under section 8727 of Title 9, but a Subchapter IV sale in Kent or Sussex preserves prior liens under section 8704, so the first diligence question in those counties is which channel the sale is under.
• Check the payment plan and moratorium screens For the 2025 to 2026 tax year, a New Castle County residential taxpayer complying with an authorized payment plan may not be subjected to a monition or sheriff sale at all under section 8701(d) of Title 9, and Wilmington operated a reassessment moratorium on new monitions through September 2026. A property can leave the list late for reasons that have nothing to do with payment in full.
• Calendar the confirmation Friday, not the sale day Redemption runs 60 days from court approval of the sale, and the deed requires a petition after that. The dates that control your money are the confirmation day the sheriff publishes, the end of the 60 day window, and, in New Castle County, the Sheriff's six month policy for deeding after confirmation.

Every Delaware jurisdiction in this set

One page per jurisdiction, each verified against the county's or the city's own publications and the current text of 9 Del. C. chapter 87. Delaware has exactly three counties, and the City of Wilmington runs a verified monition channel of its own under 22 Del. C. section 113 beside the New Castle County sale; this set is the whole state.

• New Castle tax sales
• Kent tax sales
• Sussex (this page)
• Wilmington tax sales

Keep going

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