Land · Massachusetts tax title guide

Worcester tax title, Massachusetts

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Worcester runs three different tax title tracks and confusing them is the main trap. First, foreclosed properties where title has already vested in the City by Land Court decree are held by the Tax Title Custodian and sold at public auction. Second, the Collector's Deed Sale under section 60:43 sells the tax lien itself for the taxes, interest and charges due, and the deed gives no right to possession until the buyer forecloses in Land Court. Third, the section 60:52 assignment sale transfers the City's tax title to the highest bidder, again with no possession until a foreclosure judgment. Former owners can redeem in the second and third tracks, so a winning bid is the start of a court case, not the end of one. As of the check date the City posted that no auction was scheduled, and its last published foreclosed auction notice was from 2017.

Selling office: Treasurer and Collector of Taxes (Francisco Hernandez), Worcester City Hall, 455 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01608. Phone NOT PUBLISHED on the City auction pages checked

Next sale: No auction scheduled at the check date. The City Next Auction notice states that at this time there is no auction scheduled. Worcester's Public Auctions page links a standing Next Auction document that says no auction is scheduled, and a Last Auction document for its most recent foreclosed tax title auction. That auction was held on Wednesday, September 27, 2017 at City Hall, so Worcester is an honest gap for 2026 despite having a complete published process. The City invites interested persons to contact the Treasurer and Collector and ask for a specific foreclosed property to be offered at the next foreclosure auction.

Monitor the Public Auctions page and its Next Auction document. No 2026 date was published at the check date.

Dates and deadlines

Sources: Public Auctions, City of Worcester. Next Auction notice, City of Worcester. Last Auction notice, City of Worcester (September 27, 2017). Payments, Appeals and Refunds, Treasurer and Collector identity, City of Worcester. 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 Worcester 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 Worcester, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

Open a PropertyRadar accountSee plans and pricing

Pine and Brass is a PropertyRadar partner. If you open an account through these links, we may earn a commission; it does not change the price you pay.

How Massachusetts tax title works

• Massachusetts taxes are a lien on the land, billed by the city or town in quarterly installments due August 1, November 1, February 1 and May 1, with unpaid balances accruing interest at 14 percent per year before any taking (chapter 59, sections 57 and 57C).
• If the tax stays unpaid, the municipal collector makes a demand, waits at least 14 days, gives 14 days notice of intention, and then takes the land for the city or town by an instrument of taking recorded at the registry of deeds within 60 days (section 60:53).
• The amount owed becomes a tax title account held by the municipal treasurer, and later taxes and charges are certified into the account while the owner works out payment (section 60:61).
• The owner, or anyone with an interest in the land, can redeem at any time before a foreclosure petition is filed by paying the treasurer the full tax title account plus interest at 8 percent per year, in a lump sum or in installments (section 60:62).
• Before foreclosure, the treasurer can sell the tax title itself, assigning it to the highest bidder at a public auction for no less than the amount needed to redeem it, and the buyer steps into the town's shoes (section 60:52).
• Only the Land Court can end the right to redeem. The tax title holder petitions after 12 months from the taking, a title examiner is appointed, and interested parties are notified by registered mail (sections 60:65 and 60:66).
• If the court enters a decree, all rights of redemption are barred and the title becomes absolute, subject only to a narrow one year window to move to vacate the decree for extraordinary circumstances (sections 60:69, 60:64 and 60:69A).
• Foreclosed property the town sells goes first through a broker listing, then, if unsold after 12 months, an auction with a floor of two thirds of appraised value, and only then a custodian public auction, and the former owner keeps the excess equity above the tax debt and sale costs (sections 60:64A, 60:77B and 60:1).

How buying works in Worcester

In person only, before the sale starts, per the last published notice (2017). Bidders the City bars include the former owner and their agents, anyone delinquent on their own Worcester taxes or charges, anyone who failed to close at a previous auction, and anyone who was the subject of a Worcester tax title foreclosure.

• Know which sale you are at A custodian auction sells foreclosed property with title already vested in the city. A Collector's Deed sale or an assignment sale sells the lien position only, and you are buying a Land Court case, redemption risk and a timeline measured in years, not a house. Worcester runs all three tracks, so read the category heading on the notice before the parcel list.
• Price the deposit and the clock, not just the bid Massachusetts sale terms are local and strict. Springfield's 2026 terms required a verified $5,000 certified deposit per property before bidding and made a winner's deposit non refundable. Fall River required a $15,000 certified check or money order just to qualify to bid, with the balance due in 30 days. Worcester's published foreclosed terms took 10 percent down and the balance plus a $125 recording fee within 15 days. Have certified funds ready before you register.
• Check whether you are even allowed to bid Cities bar the former owner and their agents, anyone delinquent on their own taxes to that city, and, in Springfield, anyone with open code violations or a failed prior purchase. Section 60:77B also requires a sworn statement that neither you nor anyone gaining equity has a disqualifying fire related conviction or an unpaid real estate tax delinquency to that city. Being the high bidder does not help if the custodian must reject you.
• Expect conditions that outlive the auction Foreclosed property in Massachusetts is sold as is, often with occupants the buyer must evict and environmental conditions the buyer takes on. Springfield adds a three year owner occupancy restriction on residential property and rehabilitation deadlines that start at transfer. Boston does not auction at all; its tax foreclosed property moves by proposal, with development deadlines the City enforces by taking the property back.

Terms: what a bid actually costs

What happens when a parcel does not sell

For a Collector's Deed sale, an adjournment sale is held within 7 days of the original auction date, and if nobody bids the Treasurer and Collector executes a tax collector's deed on behalf of the City, which then holds the tax title. For foreclosed parcels, the City invites interested persons to contact the Treasurer and Collector to have a property offered at the next foreclosure auction.

Before you bid

• Read the registry, not just the listing Pull the instrument of taking, any instrument of assignment and the Land Court docket for the parcel at the registry of deeds. A taking that was not recorded within 60 days, or notices that do not match the statute, are the defects that unravel tax titles, and the published sale terms will not tell you about them.
• Confirm the decree is final and the window is running For a foreclosed property, confirm the Land Court decree has entered and note the one year section 60:69A vacatur window and the section 60:64A election and accounting deadlines. A cheap parcel inside that window, or one where the former owner has a live excess equity claim, carries risk the auction price will not reflect.
• Verify the numbers with the treasurer Ask the treasurer's office for the tax title account balance as of the judgment date, the appraised value if the property went through section 60:64A, and the exact deposit and closing terms for the sale you plan to attend. City websites in this set ranged from complete published terms to no published sale information at all, and two official pages still quoted the old 16 percent interest rate.
• Walk the property and the neighborhood Foreclosed tax possessions are sold as is, with no warranties, and may carry occupants, code violations, environmental conditions and, in the United States government's case, a surviving federal redemption right. Price the eviction, the cleanup and the holding time into your maximum bid before the sale, not after.

Every Massachusetts city in this set

One page per city, each verified against the city's own publications and the current text of MGL chapter 60. Massachusetts tax title is municipal, run by the city or town collector and treasurer; this set is the 10 largest cities.

• Boston tax title
• Worcester (this page)
• Springfield tax title
• Cambridge tax title
• Lowell tax title
• Brockton tax title
• Quincy tax title
• Lynn tax title
• New Bedford tax title
• Fall River tax title

Keep going

Once a deadline puts you in a sale, the Land Investor Due Diligence Toolkit is the checklist and bid worksheet to run on each parcel before you bid. The same desk runs Florida tax deed sales, Texas tax sales, Pennsylvania tax sales, Georgia tax sales, North Carolina tax foreclosure sales, Ohio tax foreclosure sales, Illinois tax lien sales, Michigan tax foreclosure sales, Arizona tax lien sales, California tax defaulted property sales, Colorado tax lien sales, South Carolina tax sales, Indiana tax lien sales, Tennessee delinquent tax sales, Wisconsin tax deed sales, Missouri tax sales, New Jersey tax lien sales, Maryland tax lien sales, West Virginia tax sales, Virginia tax sales, Oklahoma tax resale, Kansas tax foreclosure sales, Arkansas tax-delinquent land sales, Alabama tax sales, Kentucky certificate of delinquency sales, Mississippi tax land sales, Nevada tax deed sales, New Mexico delinquent property tax sales, Iowa tax lien sales, Nebraska tax certificate sales, Minnesota tax-forfeited land sales, Utah final tax sales, Washington tax foreclosure sales, Oregon tax foreclosure sales, Connecticut tax sales and Massachusetts tax title sales, and the proven New York season, with the live membership, sits in the NY tax sale hub.