Land · Vermont tax sale guide

Burlington tax sales, Vermont

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Burlington collects property taxes in quarterly installments due the 12th of August, November, March, and June, and an account goes delinquent when outstanding taxes remain unpaid after the June deadline (payment received, postmarked, or paid online by 4:30 pm on Monday, June 22, 2026). Delinquency brings a one time 8 percent penalty fee, a 1 dollar warrant fee, and an additional 4 percent interest charge where the fourth quarter installment is included. After a pandemic era pause in delinquent collection, the city restarted enforcement in 2026: local press reported in May 2026 that 38 properties had been identified, that owners of 14 had entered repayment plans, and that about 20 parcels were proceeding to tax sale. None of that has matured into an official sale notice. Burlington publishes no sale date, no parcel list, no registration or deposit terms, and no named collector of delinquent taxes, so the honest record is an announced intention to sell, not a sale a buyer can calendar.

Selling office: City of Burlington Clerk and Treasurer's Office, City Hall, 149 Church Street, Burlington, VT 05401; property tax line (802) 865-7000 extension 1, propertytaxes@burlingtonvt.gov. The city publishes no named collector of delinquent taxes; its 2026 delinquent collection effort runs through the Clerk and Treasurer's Office and the Department of Finance and Administration.

Next sale: No 2026 sale announced. Local press (Seven Days, May 20, 2026, and the Burlington Free Press, May 2026) reported about 20 parcels proceeding to tax sale after a pandemic era moratorium, with 38 properties identified as of April 6, 2026 and total delinquent property taxes of about 810,442 dollars then outstanding. Those are reports of city presentations, not official sale notices: no dated Burlington tax sale, parcel list, or bidder terms appear on burlingtonvt.gov as of November 9, 2026, so no sale is recorded as scheduled.

No date to calendar. Watch the Board of Finance agendas and the city's news pages; a real sale must be preceded by three weeks of newspaper advertisement and 30 days of certified mail notice, so it becomes visible about a month before it happens.

Dates and deadlines

Sources: City of Burlington, Property Tax FAQ. City of Burlington, Tax Rates and Calculations. 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 Burlington 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 Burlington, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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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.

How buying works in Burlington

NOT PUBLISHED: the city publishes no bidder registration rules for a tax sale.

• Expect the starting bid to be the full amount due The statute sets no minimum bid, but the town can take the property itself whenever bidding stops short of the taxes, costs, and fees, so no parcel sells cheaply by default. Get the collector's current payoff figure, including the section 5258 sale costs and the collector's commission of up to 8 percent, before setting a ceiling.
• Bring certified funds, not a personal check Vermont towns that publish payment terms require certified money. Brattleboro takes bids only by certified check, treasurer check, or money order, and reimburses any part of a bid above the certified funds on hand on the day of the sale; a property also leaves its sale list only on full payment in certified funds, never a personal check.
• Price the one year wait Your cash is committed for a full year with no deed, no title, and no possession. If the owner redeems, you are repaid the entire sale price plus 1 percent per month, and a fraction of a month counts in full; if nobody redeems, the collector must give you a deed. Bid a number that works under both outcomes, and remember that proposals to shorten the year or cut the rate were not enacted.
• Watch the newspaper and the town clerk, not a calendar Vermont towns publish no auction calendar, and sales are rare and cancelable: Brattleboro's sale of Thursday, October 29, 2026 was advertised for three weeks and then canceled. A real sale becomes visible through the three week newspaper advertisement and the levy filing at the town clerk's office, roughly a month ahead.

Terms: what a bid actually costs

Parcels that draw no sufficient bid

The statutory channel is purchase by the city itself under section 5259 when no bid equal to the taxes and costs is made, and Burlington has used it: a 2013 City Council resolution authorized acquiring 150 Shelburne Street at tax sale on exactly that condition. The city publishes no separate leftover list and holds no leftover sale.

Before you bid

• Read the levy filing at the town clerk's office The warrant copy, the tax bill portion, the land description, and the signed levy statement are filed for record with the town clerk under section 5252. That filing, not any advertisement or third party list, is the authoritative statement of what is being sold and what the town believes is owed.
• Confirm the parcel is still eligible and still listed A taxpayer who accepted the written reasonable repayment plan and is paying as agreed cannot be sold, and payment in full at any point before the sale takes the parcel off the list. Boards of abatement can also reduce or discharge the tax. Recheck with the collector close to sale day.
• Search title and assume caveat emptor The collector's deed conveys only the title the taxpayer held, with no warranty (Morse v. King). Interests the sale does not reach, defects in the underlying tax, and any flaw in the long notice chain are the buyer's problem. Price the title risk into the bid, and expect to quiet title before resale or financing.
• Plan for a year of carrying without control During redemption the taxpayer keeps possession, and the purchaser's statutory protection is the redemption interest alone. Budget insurance and monitoring for the year, do not commit improvement money until the deed issues, and note the one year window section 5263 gives for challenges to a recorded tax deed.

Every Vermont jurisdiction in this set

One page per jurisdiction, each verified against the city or town's own publications and the current text of 32 V.S.A. sections 5251 to 5263. Vermont tax sales are municipal, run by each town's collector of delinquent taxes; this set is the 10 largest cities and towns.

• Burlington (this page)
• South Burlington tax sales
• Rutland City tax sales
• Barre City tax sales
• Montpelier tax sales
• Brattleboro tax sales
• Hartford tax sales
• Essex tax sales
• Colchester tax sales
• Bennington 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, 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, Massachusetts tax title sales, Rhode Island tax sales and Vermont tax sales, and the proven New York season, with the live membership, sits in the NY tax sale hub.