Land · Delaware tax sale guide

Wilmington tax sales, Delaware

Verified

The City's Department of Finance Rules for Collection of Delinquent Accounts, Policy 2019 to 01, Version 9.0, revised April 2024, are the document that proves this channel is the City's own. The rules state that unpaid city tax bills are delinquent on September 1 of the year levied, set the sheriff sale thresholds the City applies before filing, a delinquent balance threshold of 7,500 dollars for owner occupied properties, with accounts identified from those delinquent more than 365 days, no monitions against owner occupied residential properties for utility only delinquencies, and no threshold at all for commercial, rental, nonprofit owned or nuisance properties, including vacant properties. Vacant properties are not eligible for payment agreements, the City sends a demand letter 15 days prior to filing a monition action, and it endeavors to send notice to mortgage companies of record 30 days prior to filing. A buyer at a city sale therefore faces a City plaintiff applying City thresholds, a City finance approval of the final bid, and a City redemption price, inside a county run auction room.

Selling office: City of Wilmington Department of Finance, Customer Service Unit, Louis L. Redding City/County Building, 800 N. French Street, Wilmington, DE 19801, phone (302) 571-4320.

Next sale: City monition properties at the sheriff sale, Tuesday, November 10, 2026, 9:00 a.m., City/County Building, Wilmington. The poster list for Tuesday, November 10, 2026 contains three monition posters, for 421 W. 22nd Street (parcel 2602210043, Sheriff number 26-009507), 826 N. Lombard Street (parcel 2603630152, Sheriff number 26-009535) and 109 Stroud Street (parcel 2604230237, Sheriff number 26-009539), each on terms of full purchase price at the time of sale and each subject to the approval of the Director of Finance of the City of Wilmington under section 113 of Title 22. The next monthly sale day is Tuesday, December 8, 2026; whether city monition properties appear in it depends on the monitions the City has filed.

Second Tuesday of every month at 9:00 a.m. at the City/County Building; city monition properties appear in the monthly poster list when the City has filed them, as on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, with the next sale day on Tuesday, December 8, 2026.

Dates and deadlines

Sources: City of Wilmington, Department of Finance, Rules for Collection of Delinquent Accounts, Policy 2019 to 01, Version 9.0. City of Wilmington, City Property Tax. New Castle County, Current Sheriff Sale Poster List (city monition posters, November 10, 2026). New Castle County, Sheriff Sales. Delaware General Assembly, House Bill 187 engrossment (sections 8726 of Title 9 and 113 of Title 22). 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 Wilmington 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 Wilmington, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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How Delaware monition sales work

• Delaware collects delinquent real estate taxes by a court sale under the monition method in Subchapter II of Chapter 87 of Title 9 of the Delaware Code, sections 8721 to 8733. The buyer purchases the real estate itself at a sheriff sale; there is no sale of liens or certificates.
• The county tax collecting authority files a praecipe in the office of the Prothonotary of the Superior Court for the county where the property is located, and the Prothonotary records it on a special judgment docket against the property for the taxes due (section 8722). The tax is a lien for 10 years from July 1 of the levy year, and in Kent and Sussex Counties the lien has priority over all other liens (section 8705).
• On a praecipe for monition, the Prothonotary issues a monition to the sheriff stating the judgment, including accrued penalty. The monition warns every person with an interest that the judgment must be paid within 20 days or the property may be sold for the judgment, accrued penalties and all costs (sections 8722 and 8723). The sheriff posts the monition on a prominent part of the property and returns it within 10 days; the posting is notice to the owner and all interested persons (section 8724).
• After 20 days following the sheriff's return, if the judgment and costs are not paid, a writ of venditioni exponas issues commanding the sheriff to expose the property to public sale (section 8725). Sales are held by the county sheriff on the county's published sale day, and in all three counties the full purchase price is due on the day of sale for a monition sale.
• Where the sale notice so provides, the county department of finance or chief county financial officer may approve or disapprove the final bid for any public purpose or reason, and counties may require bidders to be certified before they bid (section 8726). A municipality has the same approval and certification powers for its own monition sales under section 113 of Title 22.
• On the return of the writ, the Superior Court inquires into the regularity of the proceedings and either approves the sale or sets it aside (section 8731). The owner may then redeem at any time within 60 days from the day the sale is approved, by paying the purchaser the purchase price and 15 percent in addition, together with all costs (section 8729).
• If the property is not redeemed, the purchaser must petition the Superior Court for an order directing the sheriff to execute and deliver a deed (section 8728). The sale vests in the purchaser all the right, title and interest of the person assessed and of the owners, freed and discharged from liens and encumbrances (section 8727).
• Kent and Sussex Counties have a second statutory channel, the sale of land for delinquent taxes in Subchapter IV, sections 8771 to 8779, under which the tax collecting authority sells the land itself at the courthouse door, no deed issues until 1 year from the sale, the owner redeems at the purchase money with 20 percent interest, prior liens survive the sale, and any excess over the tax, costs and expenses is paid at once to the owner (sections 8704, 8776 and 8779). Neither county presents its published sheriff tax sales as sales under that channel.
• On a monition sale, proceeds above the judgment and costs are not kept by the county: in the published New Castle County practice, lien holders and homeowners contact the Sheriff's Office for proceeds remaining after distribution of the costs of the sale, and excess proceeds unclaimed after 90 days go to the Prothonotary for escrow and listing on the Superior Court Project Rightful Owner pages, which the Court maintains for all three counties. Delaware enacted no amendment to Chapter 87 after Tyler v. Hennepin County addressing surplus.

How buying works in Wilmington

Bidders register with the New Castle County Sheriff on sale day, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:15 a.m., with a current government photo identification, verification of 10,000 dollars in certified funds, and a signed bidder auction rules form. Separately, under section 113 of Title 22, where the notice of a municipal monition sale so indicates, the City may require bidders, prior to any bid, to certify to the City that the bidder and its affiliated entities do not own an interest in other real property in the City with past due amounts identified in section 2901(a) of Title 25 in excess of 1,000 dollars, or that has been vacant for at least 18 consecutive months without a valid building permit or pending land use application; the City then generates a certificate the bidder presents to the Sheriff before the sale.

• The full price is due on sale day Every Delaware monition term in this set requires 100 percent of the purchase money on the day of sale: at the time of sale in New Castle County, by 2:00 p.m. on the day of sale in Kent County, and by 3:00 p.m. on the day of sale in Sussex County. The 20 percent deposit structure in the same sheriff offices belongs to mortgage foreclosure sales and does not apply to a tax sale.
• Registration money is real money, in bank funds New Castle County requires verification of 10,000 dollars in certified funds at registration, collected only from the winning bidder, and takes no cash. Kent and Sussex Counties each require a 4,000 dollar deposit to register or to close a winning bid, in cash or bank funds as their pages state, and the Kent deposit is expressly non refundable.
• The government can reject your winning bid Where the sale notice carries the term, the county finance authority, or for a city sale the municipal finance director, may disapprove the final bid for any public purpose or reason, including your record on other property you own. Counties and the City of Wilmington may also require a bidder certificate before you may bid at all. A winning bid in Delaware is therefore an offer the government can refuse, not a completed purchase.
• Approval, redemption, then a petition: the deed takes months The sale is confirmed by Superior Court weeks after sale day, the owner then has 60 days from approval to redeem at the price plus 15 percent and costs (20 percent plus repair costs from a Wilmington city sale), and only after that window closes can the buyer petition the Court for a sheriff's deed. Price the wait, and the redemption risk, into the bid.

Terms: what a bid actually costs

Proceeds left over after a city sale

Lien holders and homeowners are expected to contact the Sheriff's Office to determine whether proceeds remain after the costs of the sale have been distributed; if excess proceeds remain unclaimed after 90 days, they are distributed to the Prothonotary of New Castle County for placement in escrow and listing on the Superior Court Project Rightful Owner website, as each monition poster states. NOT PUBLISHED as a separate City procedure: the City sources read for this record state no city leftover list or resale program for a property whose bid the City finance director disapproves.

Before you bid

• Learn which plaintiff is selling The same sheriff sale mixes mortgage foreclosures, judgments, county monitions and, in New Castle County, City of Wilmington monitions. The writ type and the approval term in each poster tell you whose sale it is, and the answer changes the redemption price, the approval authority and the prequalification rules. Read the poster, not just the address.
• Do your own title work; nobody guarantees it The Kent and Sussex sheriffs state expressly that they do not guarantee clear titles. A monition sale discharges liens by statute under section 8727 of Title 9, but a Subchapter IV sale in Kent or Sussex preserves prior liens under section 8704, so the first diligence question in those counties is which channel the sale is under.
• Check the payment plan and moratorium screens For the 2025 to 2026 tax year, a New Castle County residential taxpayer complying with an authorized payment plan may not be subjected to a monition or sheriff sale at all under section 8701(d) of Title 9, and Wilmington operated a reassessment moratorium on new monitions through September 2026. A property can leave the list late for reasons that have nothing to do with payment in full.
• Calendar the confirmation Friday, not the sale day Redemption runs 60 days from court approval of the sale, and the deed requires a petition after that. The dates that control your money are the confirmation day the sheriff publishes, the end of the 60 day window, and, in New Castle County, the Sheriff's six month policy for deeding after confirmation.

Every Delaware jurisdiction in this set

One page per jurisdiction, each verified against the county's or the city's own publications and the current text of 9 Del. C. chapter 87. Delaware has exactly three counties, and the City of Wilmington runs a verified monition channel of its own under 22 Del. C. section 113 beside the New Castle County sale; this set is the whole state.

• New Castle tax sales
• Kent tax sales
• Sussex tax sales
• Wilmington (this page)

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, Vermont tax sales, New Hampshire tax lien sales, Maine tax lien sales, Delaware tax sales and Louisiana tax sales, and the proven New York season, with the live membership, sits in the NY tax sale hub.