Land · South Carolina tax sale guide

Lancaster County tax sales, South Carolina

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Lancaster County held its 2026 delinquent tax sale on Monday, November 9, 2026 at the Springdale Recreation Center, and it publishes the most complete Forfeited Land Commission disclosure in this set: a dedicated commission page naming its members (the County Treasurer, the Auditor, and the Register of Deeds) and its disposition route. Two payment details are county specific: cash is capped at $10,000 per bidder, and a $125 deed preparation fee, a $15 recording fee, and deed stamps of $3.70 per $1,000 of bid are included in the bid amount and due at payment.

Selling office: Delinquent Tax Collector's Office, Lancaster County, 101 N Main Street, Lancaster, SC 29720; phone 803-283-8885

Next sale: Annual sale held Monday, November 9, 2026 (2026 cycle complete). The county's Tax Sale Procedures page gives Monday, November 9, 2026, beginning 9 a.m. and continuing until all properties are sold, at Springdale Recreation Center, 260 S Plantation Road, Lancaster. Delinquent taxes had to be received in hand by 5 p.m. on Friday, November 6, 2026; no delinquent taxes could be paid on the day of the sale, and the delinquent tax office was closed on November 9 to conduct the sale. No 2027 date is published.

The sale was advertised in The Lancaster News and on the county website under the Delinquent Tax Department, with an updated list available on the website after 5 p.m. on November 6, 2026 and to registered bidders on the day of sale; not all advertised properties are sold. The county publishes no parcel count in the sources read.

Dates and deadlines

Sources: Lancaster County Delinquent Tax Collection. Lancaster County Tax Sale Procedures. Lancaster County Forfeited Land Commission. 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 Lancaster County 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 Lancaster County, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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How South Carolina tax sales work

• The debt builds fast, then the county takes possession on paper. Taxes unpaid after January 15 take penalties under Section 12-45-180: 3 percent, then 7 percent more on February 2, then 5 percent more on March 17. The treasurer issues an execution, and the officer charged with collecting delinquent taxes mails the delinquency notice on April 1, takes exclusive possession by certified mail or posting, and advertises the sale once a week for three consecutive weeks under Section 12-51-40.
• The sale is a public auction, and the county opens every parcel. Under Section 12-51-50 the property is sold at public auction at the courthouse or another convenient place in the county on the advertised date; the statute sets no statewide date, and counties in this set sell between October and December. The officer must open each parcel with a bid for the county Forfeited Land Commission equal to all unpaid taxes, penalties, assessments and costs, including the taxes levied for the year the redemption period begins (Section 12-51-55). Public bidding starts at that amount.
• The winner pays in full that day and leaves with a receipt. Section 12-51-60 requires payment of the full bid on the day of the sale, in cash, cashier's check, certified check or money order, and the buyer receives a receipt, not a deed. A bidder who fails to pay has the bid cancelled, faces up to 500 dollars in damages, and the property is readvertised (Section 12-51-70). Any part of the bid above the taxes, penalties and costs is held by the collector and belongs to the former owner, who is notified of the excess after the tax deed issues.
• Redemption runs twelve months and pays a lump sum, not a rate. The defaulting taxpayer, a grantee from the owner, or a mortgage or judgment creditor may redeem within twelve months of the sale under Section 12-51-90, paying the debt plus interest on the whole successful bid: 3 percent if redeemed in the first three months, 6 percent in months four to six, 9 percent in months seven to nine, 12 percent in the last three months. The interest charged may never exceed the amount of the Forfeited Land Commission bid, so money bid above the county's opening bid earns no interest at all.
• The deed comes after the year runs, and unsold parcels sit with the Commission. If nobody redeems, the collector issues a tax title to the purchaser under Section 12-51-130, and after one more year that deed is incontestable (Section 12-51-90(C)). Parcels the Forfeited Land Commission takes in, because nobody outbid its opening bid, are held through the same redemption period; the Commission then holds title and sells forfeited lands through its own posted sale process, which is the year round leftover channel in every South Carolina county.

How bidding works in Lancaster County

Lancaster County is an open bid, live auction with numbered bidder cards, and bidders must be present to bid. Two county terms shape the money: cash payments are capped at $10,000 per bidder (the balance must be certified funds), and the deed costs are inside the bid amount rather than added afterward, a $125 deed preparation fee, a $15 recording fee, and deed stamps of $3.70 per $1,000 of bid, all due at payment.

• Bid the redemption math, not the parcel. If the owner redeems, your entire return is the quarter's lump sum percentage, capped at the county's own opening bid. Every dollar bid above that opening bid earns zero interest in the redemption outcome and is handed to the former owner in the deed outcome. The rational bid ceiling in South Carolina is set by Section 12-51-90, not by the parcel's market value.
• Full payment is due before you leave the room. South Carolina sales settle on the spot, in legal tender, and a failed payment cancels the bid, readvertises the parcel, and exposes the defaulting bidder to up to 500 dollars in damages (Section 12-51-70). Registered bidders bring certified funds sized to their maximum bid, not to their expected bid.

Terms: what a bid actually costs

Unsold parcels: the Forfeited Land Commission

The county publishes a dedicated Forfeited Land Commission page. The commission is composed of the County Treasurer, the Auditor, and the Register of Deeds, serving without compensation; its purpose is the sale of lands forfeited under Section 12-51-55, and at the end of the redemption period FLC held properties are disposed of under the Commission's Policy and Procedures. The page cites SC Code Title 12, Chapter 59, lists the members (Suzette Murphy, Auditor; Brittany Grant, Register of Deeds; Carrie Helms, Treasurer; Shirley Crockett, Secretary), and gives the commission office phone as (803) 416-9335. The county site also carries a Forfeited Properties Available subpage; current availability is not published in the sources read.

Before you bid

• Price the year, not just the parcel. Every South Carolina purchase includes twelve months of illiquidity before a deed can issue, and the owner can unwind the sale at any point in that year. Decide in advance whether you are buying the redemption return, the deed, or both, because the right bid is different for each.
• Verify the venue and the registration close. South Carolina sales are live events, and registration closes days before the sale in most counties, sometimes with a fee and never on sale day in the larger ones. The registration deadline, not the sale date, is the gate that decides whether you bid at all.
• Read the Forfeited Land Commission list after the sale. Parcels nobody outbids are taken in by the Commission and return through its own sale process after redemption runs. That list, published by each county's Commission, is the second chance at the same inventory, priced by the Commission's rules.
• Set the maximum before the sale opens. The free Max-Bid Calculator below works backwards from your resale or hold value to the highest bid you can pay, with the costs shown.

Every South Carolina county in this set

One page per county, each verified against its own county source. South Carolina has 46 counties; this set is the top 20 by population and sale volume.

• Greenville County tax sales
• Charleston County tax sales
• Richland County tax sales
• Horry County tax sales
• Spartanburg County tax sales
• York County tax sales
• Lexington County tax sales
• Beaufort County tax sales
• Berkeley County tax sales
• Anderson County tax sales
• Aiken County tax sales
• Dorchester County tax sales
• Florence County tax sales
• Pickens County tax sales
• Sumter County tax sales
• Lancaster County (this page)
• Orangeburg County tax sales
• Oconee County tax sales
• Greenwood County tax sales
• Laurens County tax sales

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 and South Carolina tax sales, and the proven New York season, with the live membership, sits in the NY tax sale hub.