Land · Tennessee tax sale guide

Tennessee delinquent tax sales by county

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Tennessee sells the property through a courtroom. Delinquent taxes are collected by suit in chancery court, and the clerk and master sells the land under court order: the clerk opens each parcel by bidding the judgment, the taxes, interest, penalties, costs and fees, on behalf of the tax entities, and the winning bidder's title waits on redemption. Redemption pays 12 percent a year on the entire purchase price. What varies, parcel by parcel, is the wait: the court sets a redemption period for each parcel based on how long its taxes were delinquent.

This page set covers the top 20 Tennessee counties by population and sale volume. Each county page carries the selling office, the sale status and dates, the venue or platform, registration and payment rules, and the channel for parcels nobody buys, verified against county and court sources. Timing is the first fact: Tennessee sales follow court calendars rather than a single season, Davidson County cancelled four dated sales in the fall of 2026 and sells next on January 20, 2027, and several counties in this set had published no 2026 date at all when these pages were checked; those pages say so instead of projecting one. The second fact is new law: for sales confirmed on or after July 1, 2026, the redemption scale is one year where the taxes were delinquent three years or less and ninety days where they were delinquent longer, so most parcels that reach a Tennessee sale now carry the ninety day clock.

Verify before you go: counties can move a date, change terms, cancel a sale, or pull parcels at any time. The official sale list is the final word.

The 20 counties

Each row links to that county's own page: selling office, venue or platform, deposit, payment terms, leftover channel, and sources. Where a county has not posted a dated sale, the row says so instead of projecting a pattern onto it.

How Tennessee delinquent tax sales work

• The trustee collects first; the court sells. Property taxes become delinquent on March 1, and unpaid taxes are turned over for suit. The delinquent tax attorney files in chancery court, and the sale is a judicial sale conducted by the clerk and master under court order under TCA 67-5-2501, not a treasurer or auditor auction. The court may order an internet sale in lieu of public outcry under TCA 67-5-2501(a)(1), and several counties in this set sell online.
• The government opens the bidding on every parcel. Under TCA 67-5-2501(a)(2) and TCA 67-5-2506, the clerk bids the amount of the judgment, the delinquent taxes with interest, penalties, costs and fees, on behalf of the tax entities prosecuting the suit, whenever no other bidder offers the same or a larger bid. The exception is a parcel the legislative body has flagged for environmental risk or as a nonconforming parcel, where the clerk does not bid at all.
• Confirmation starts both clocks. The clerk reports the sale to the court within five business days, and the right of possession and the redemption clock both run from the entry of the order confirming the sale under TCA 67-5-2503(a). What the purchaser eventually receives as a title document varies by county: some counties issue a clerk and master deed, and others, Shelby and Davidson among them, treat the recorded order confirming sale itself as the title document. The county page states which document its sales produce.
• Redemption is tiered by delinquency, and the scale changed in 2026. The court sets the redemption period for each parcel before the sale, and it is never more than one year. For orders confirming a sale entered on or after July 1, 2026, Public Chapter 971 sets the period at one year where the taxes were delinquent three years or less, and ninety days where they were delinquent more than three years; the thirty day period for property shown to be vacant or abandoned continues unchanged. Orders entered before July 1, 2026 keep the older scale. Redemption pays the purchaser interest at 12 percent per year on the entire purchase price under TCA 67-5-2701(b).
• Unsold parcels vest in the tax entities and come back through the county. A parcel that draws no bid at the judgment amount is bid in for the tax entities. The county later resells the parcels it acquired under TCA 67-5-2507 as amended in 2024, with no minimum bid by default and published lists of properties for sale. In Shelby County the resale channel is the Shelby County Land Bank; in most other counties it is the county's own surplus sale process, and each county page names the channel its county actually runs.

One Tennessee fact decides most bids: the redemption period belongs to the parcel, not to the sale. Two parcels sold in the same courtroom on the same morning can carry a one year clock and a ninety day clock, because the period follows each parcel's own delinquency span under the 2026 scale. The sale documents state the period the court set for each parcel, and that line, not the parcel's price, is what separates a long illiquid hold from a quick turn at 12 percent.

Research the parcels before you bid

A sale list gives you the parcel, 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 the country, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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Get the alert, not just the calendar.

The dates on these pages are the free layer. The Pine membership is the paid layer, proven in New York: members pick their counties, get alerts when a sale is scheduled or a list posts, and receive the full property list with the analysis already done. Tennessee counties open from the interest list first, in the order readers join it.

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.