Land · Maine tax lien guide

South Portland tax sales, Maine

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South Portland's gap has a distinctive shape: instead of a sale programme, the city publishes a buyer initiated channel. Its Request to Purchase City Owned / Tax Acquired Parcels procedure, under Ordinance Sec. 2-171, Sale of real property, charges a request to purchase fee of 150 dollars, sends the request to the Planning Board for a public hearing and recommendation, and leaves the ultimate decision whether to sell or retain with the City Council, under a general policy of sale at fair market value with conveyance by quit claim deed. The Tax Bill FAQ confirms the collection side: questions go to the Finance Department, Treasury and Collections Division, at 207-767-7612 or finance@southportland.gov, and tax bills are due in May and November. Two cautions matter for copy. First, the request procedure is not a sale calendar: no parcel list, price, or date is published, and a buyer cannot calendar anything from it. Second, the procedure predates the section 943-C broker duty and sits alongside it; it does not by itself satisfy the statute, which requires 90 days notice to the former owner, a licensed broker listing, and payment of the excess over the statutory deductions to the former owner for any sale to someone other than the former owner.

Selling office: City of South Portland Finance Department, Treasury and Collections Division, City Hall, 25 Cottage Road, South Portland, ME 04106, phone 207-767-7612, email finance@southportland.gov.

Next sale: No tax-acquired property sale currently published. No broker listing, bid notice, or council order disposing of a tax-acquired parcel was found in the sources searched. The standing route is the request to purchase procedure, which is initiated by the buyer, not scheduled by the city.

No date to calendar. The request procedure is buyer initiated; contact the Finance Department at 207-767-7612 or finance@southportland.gov to ask whether a parcel is tax-acquired and available.

Dates and deadlines

Sources: City of South Portland, Tax Bill FAQ. City of South Portland, Request to Purchase City Owned / Tax Acquired Parcels and Ordinance Sec. 2-171 (city document). 36 M.R.S. section 943-C, Sale of foreclosed properties (Maine Legislature). 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 South Portland 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 South Portland, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.

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How Maine tax lien mortgages work

• Maine has no county tax sales and no lien auction. Each municipality enforces its own taxes under Title 36, chapter 105, subchapter 9: the tax collector files the lien certificate, the municipal treasurer gives the foreclosure notice, and the municipal officers sell the tax-acquired property under section 943-C.
• Taxes are a lien on the real estate under section 552, taking precedence over all other claims, until the taxes are paid or the lien is otherwise terminated by law. Delinquency interest is set by municipal vote under section 505, subsection 4, capped by the Treasurer of State formula; the cap for taxable year 2026 is 7.00 percent, and there is no single statewide rate.
• After 8 months and within 1 year after the original commitment, the collector demands payment within 30 days, by delivery, leaving at the last and usual place of abode, or certified mail, return receipt requested, with 3 dollars for making the demand plus the certified mail fee (section 942). After the 30 days expire, and within 10 days thereafter, the collector records a tax lien certificate in the registry of deeds, files a true copy with the municipal treasurer, and sends true copies by certified mail to each record mortgage holder and, if the real estate is not assessed to its record owner, to the record owner.
• Filing the certificate creates a tax lien mortgage to the municipality, with priority over all other mortgages, liens, attachments, and encumbrances, but no right of possession until the right of redemption expires (section 943). If the tax, interest, and costs are paid within 18 months after filing, the treasurer or assignee prepares and records a discharge.
• If the mortgage is not paid within 18 months after filing, it is deemed foreclosed and the right of redemption expires, with no sale and no court order. The municipal treasurer must notify the party named on the mortgage and each record mortgage holder, not more than 45 days nor less than 30 days before the foreclosing date, by delivery or certified mail, return receipt requested, stating the exact foreclosure date. A person who did not receive that notice in time may redeem until 30 days after the treasurer does provide it, and a mortgagee or record owner who never received the section 942 notice may redeem within 3 months after receiving actual knowledge of the recording.
• After foreclosure, if the municipality sells to anyone other than the former owner, it must use the section 943-C process: at least 90 days before listing, written notice to the former owner's last known address by certified mail, return receipt requested, and first class mail; listing at the highest reasonable anticipated price with a real estate broker or agent licensed under Title 32, chapter 114, who holds no municipal office and is not employed by the municipality; and conveyance by quitclaim deed at the highest price obtainable within 12 months after listing.
• The former owner receives all sale proceeds above seven deductions: all taxes owed, all taxes that would have been assessed while the municipality owned the property, all accrued interest, the listed fees including broker fees, other selling, maintaining, or improving expenses including documented administrative costs and reasonable attorney fees, the cost of the lien and foreclosure process including reasonable attorney fees, and unpaid sewer, water, or other utility charges and reasonable municipal fees. The municipality must provide a written accounting itemising those deductions at the former owner's request, and must give at least 30 days notice of intent to pay before disbursing the excess.
• If the former owner cannot be located after reasonable diligence, the municipality publishes notice once a week for 3 consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county; if the excess goes unclaimed for 30 days after the final published notice, it is transferred to the Unclaimed Property Fund under Title 33, section 2141. Within 10 days of paying any excess, the municipality records a notice of payment in the registry of deeds, and receipt of the excess waives any action under section 946-B challenging the taking, while preserving a damages action over the conveyance or the amount.
• Only if, after 3 attempts, the municipality cannot contract with a broker or agent, or the broker or agent cannot sell within 12 months after listing, may the municipal officers sell in any manner authorised by the municipality's legislative body, and the excess duty to the former owner still applies (section 943-C, subsection 4-A). If the municipality retains the property for municipal use, it must procure a licensed appraisal and pay the excess on the appraised value (subsection 7). A person may not challenge the validity of the taking after 5 years following the expiration of the redemption period for a lien recorded after October 13, 2014, or 2 years for commercial real estate liens recorded after June 30, 2026 (section 946-B).

How buying works in South Portland

NOT PUBLISHED as bidder registration, because no sale is published. A buyer instead files a Request to Purchase City Owned / Tax Acquired Parcels application with the Planning Board and pays a request to purchase fee of 150 dollars.

• There is no lien auction to bid in Maine does not sell lien certificates. The sale you can buy into is the municipality's sale of tax-acquired property after foreclosure, run through a licensed broker, and the terms live in the broker's purchase and sale agreement and the council order approving the disposition, not in a statewide bidder packet.
• The price is the market price, not the tax debt The broker lists the property at the highest reasonable price at which it is anticipated to sell, and the municipality conveys it by quitclaim deed at the highest price at which it is able to sell within 12 months after listing. Do not bid on the assumption that the tax debt sets the price; the tax debt sets only the first deduction from the sale proceeds.
• Expect the former owner's excess to be carved out of the deal Before the former owner is paid, the municipality deducts the taxes owed, the taxes that would have been assessed while it owned the property, accrued interest, fees including the broker fee, selling, maintaining, and improving expenses, the lien and foreclosure costs, and unpaid utility charges. The remainder belongs to the former owner. That is the seller's accounting to make, but it is the reason a municipal sale price can look high against the tax debt and still leave the municipality with little.
• Get the terms from the listing broker and the council order Maine publishes no statewide registration, earnest money, or closing window for tax-acquired sales, and the broker sale towns in this set publish no earnest money amount or closing window in their council orders. Ask the listing broker for the purchase and sale terms and read the council order for the parcel before you offer.

Terms: what a bid actually costs

How a buyer pursues a tax-acquired parcel in South Portland

The published channel is the Request to Purchase City Owned / Tax Acquired Parcels procedure: an application to the Planning Board, a public hearing and recommendation by the Planning Board, and a City Council decision on whether to sell or retain, with conveyance by quit claim deed at fair market value under Ordinance Sec. 2-171. That procedure predates the section 943-C broker duty and sits alongside it; a sale to anyone other than the former owner must still satisfy section 943-C, including the 90 day notice and the broker listing, and the excess over the statutory deductions belongs to the former owner.

Before you bid

• Read the council order, not a calendar site A Maine tax-acquired sale becomes real in a council order approving the disposition and a broker listing. Bangor's orders recite the taking date, the listing price, the buyer, and compliance with sections 942 and 943 for the taking and section 943-C for the sale. Third party calendars do not carry this mechanism.
• Confirm the 90 day notice and the broker Before a listing, the municipality must give the former owner at least 90 days written notice by certified mail and first class mail, and must list with a broker or agent licensed under Title 32, chapter 114, who holds no municipal office and is not employed by the municipality. A sale that skipped either step is not the section 943-C process.
• Treat pre 2024 town practice as history Sealed bid offerings from before August 9, 2024, and town policies written before that date, describe a process the statute has replaced. Lewiston's January 23, 2024 disposition policy still states a former owner right to require the broker process and a 6 month sale window; the current statute makes the process mandatory and gives 12 months. The codified text controls.
• Price the quitclaim and the title bar The municipality conveys by quitclaim deed, and a challenge to the validity of the taking is barred 5 years after the redemption period expires for liens recorded after October 13, 2014, or 2 years for commercial real estate liens recorded after June 30, 2026. Search title, expect to quiet it before resale or financing, and remember that the former owner's receipt of excess waives a taking challenge but not a damages claim over the amount.

Every Maine jurisdiction in this set

One page per jurisdiction, each verified against the city or town's own publications and the current text of 36 MRSA sections 942, 943 and 943-C. Maine tax foreclosure is municipal, run by each town's treasurer and tax collector; this set is the 10 largest cities and towns.

• Portland tax sales
• Bangor tax sales
• Lewiston tax sales
• Auburn tax sales
• South Portland (this page)
• Biddeford tax sales
• Augusta tax sales
• Waterville tax sales
• Brunswick tax sales
• Sanford 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, Vermont tax sales, New Hampshire tax lien sales and Maine tax lien sales, and the proven New York season, with the live membership, sits in the NY tax sale hub.