Land · Vermont tax sale guide

Vermont tax sales by city and town

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Vermont runs its tax sales one municipality at a time. There is no county sale and no state auction calendar: each city and town collects through its own collector of taxes under one statute, 32 V.S.A. sections 5251 to 5263, but the office that sells may be a delinquent tax collector, a treasurer acting as constable, a clerk and treasurer, or a town manager, depending on the local charter. Sales are rare by design. Since 2025 a sale requires at least 1,500 dollars owed and more than a year of delinquency, and since 2024 the town must first offer a written repayment plan. The pages below track ten of Vermont's largest municipalities, the channel each one actually uses, and the most recent sale each one has officially published.

What never changes is the shape of the deal. The winning bid buys the whole property, but the buyer walks away with no deed: the owner then has a full year to redeem by repaying the entire sale price plus interest at 1 percent per month, and Vermont gives the buyer no statutory answer at all for a bid above the taxes and costs, because the state has no surplus distribution law. Read the state frame first, then the page for the municipality you are watching, because the published record ranges from Brattleboro's complete process page to towns that publish nothing about selling at all.

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

The 10 jurisdictions

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

How Vermont tax sales work

• Vermont has no county tax sales. Each city or town sells through its collector of taxes under 32 V.S.A. sections 5251 to 5263, entirely outside the courts, on its own schedule.
• A sale can only start when the taxpayer owes a minimum of 1,500 dollars and has been delinquent for longer than one year, and only after the municipality has offered a written reasonable repayment plan that the taxpayer refused, failed to answer within 30 days, or failed to pay under (section 5252).
• The collector extends a warrant and records the levy with the town clerk: a true copy of the warrant, the relevant part of the tax bill, a description of the land, and a signed levy statement.
• Notice runs three ways at once: advertisement in a newspaper circulating in the vicinity for three successive weeks, with the last publication at least 10 days before the sale; certified mail to the taxpayer and to mortgagees and lien holders of record at least 30 days before the sale, with resend duties if the letter comes back unclaimed; and a posting in a public place in the town.
• The whole parcel is sold at public auction to the highest bidder for cash, unless the owner asked in writing at least 24 hours ahead, with the required subdivision certifications, that only a portion be sold (section 5254).
• The statute sets no minimum bid, but if no bid equals the taxes and costs, the town itself may buy the property by act of its selectboard or mayor (section 5259).
• The buyer receives no deed at the sale. The owner, a lien holder, or a mortgagee has one year to redeem by paying the full sum for which the land was sold, plus interest at 1 percent per month or fraction thereof (section 5260).
• If the year runs unredeemed, the collector shall execute a deed to the purchaser (section 5261). If the property is redeemed instead, the buyer receives the redemption money on demand.

Vermont sells the real property itself at a town run public auction, but the buyer waits a full year for a deed: the owner can redeem by repaying the entire sale price plus interest at 1 percent per month, and Vermont has no surplus distribution statute for any bid above the taxes and costs.

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. Vermont jurisdictions 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.