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Land · Ohio tax sale guide
Lucas County tax foreclosure sales
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Lucas changed its tax sale format in 2026 and both the Sheriff and the Treasurer say so. Mortgage sales have been online since December 16, 2020, and effective March 12, 2026 tax foreclosure sales are online too, so no sheriff sale in the county is conducted in person any longer. Tax sales run monthly on a Thursday set by the Sheriff, almost always the second Thursday, with a second sale two weeks later for parcels that did not sell. The county flags two special classes on its lists: parcels marked with an asterisk are nonproductive land that may pass to the electing subdivision if no qualifying bid arrives, and parcels marked with a dagger are abandoned land offered only at the first sale date. Lucas is also one of the three counties whose board of revision direct transfers to a land bank were upheld in the Ohio Supreme Court consolidated appeals decided in 2023.
Selling office: Lucas County Sheriff, selling on court order; tax foreclosure determinations for abandoned and nonproductive land are made by the County Treasurer's Office
Next sale: Thursday, November 12, 2026 at 10:00 a.m., the second Thursday of November, for the monthly tax foreclosure auction. The Treasurer states tax auctions are held monthly on a date scheduled by the Sheriff, almost always the second Thursday, and November 12, 2026 is the second Thursday of November. No parcel level list for that date was read for this page, and the second sale that would follow two weeks later falls on Thursday, November 26, 2026, which is Thanksgiving Day, so its handling is unverified.
No Lucas tax sale date list or parcel count was published on the Sheriff or Treasurer pages consulted beyond the monthly pattern and the March 12, 2026 move online. No parcel count is stated.
Dates and deadlines
| Next sale | Thursday, November 12, 2026 at 10:00 a.m., the second Thursday of November, for the monthly tax foreclosure auction |
| Sale pattern | Tax foreclosure auctions are held monthly online at 10:00 a.m. on a Thursday scheduled by the Sheriff, almost always the second Thursday of the month, with a second sale two weeks after the first for parcels that did not sell. Mortgage foreclosure auctions are held online on Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. All bids must move in increments of at least $25. |
| Advertising and the list | The Sheriff states that sheriff's sale lists are published monthly on the RealAuction site. Case numbers beginning with TF denote tax foreclosures and case numbers beginning with CI denote mortgage foreclosures, and complete legal descriptions are available from the County Auditor. |
| Minimum bid | The Treasurer states the starting bid plainly: it is the amount of delinquent taxes and costs. The Sheriff describes tax foreclosure properties the same way, as sold for delinquent taxes and costs. Section 5721.19(A) caps that floor at the lesser of the auditor fair market value plus costs, or the total amount found due plus costs. |
| Deposit | For a tax sale the Treasurer applies Common Pleas Local Rule 5.02(D)(1) as 10 percent of the starting bid, with a minimum of $1,000 and a maximum of $5,000, submitted electronically through the auction platform. The Sheriff's own statement of the same local rule gives 5 percent of appraised value for appraised property and 10 percent of the starting bid for property that has not been appraised, with the same $1,000 floor and $5,000 cap, and tax parcels are not appraised. |
| Confirmation and the deed | The debtor keeps the right of redemption until the court confirms the sale. On confirmation the Sheriff prepares the sheriff deed and notifies the purchaser of the remaining balance, which must be paid within 30 days of that notification. Failure to pay can forfeit the deposit and bring contempt proceedings. The buyer also pays the sheriff deed fee, recording fees, transfer fees, administrative fees and postage, and completes the Auditor conveyance form. |
| Redemption | The Sheriff states that the debtor retains the right of redemption until the court confirms the sale, which is the Section 5721.25 rule for tax cases: full payment of taxes, assessments, penalties, interest and charges plus costs, with proof of code compliance once a case has been filed. After confirmation there is no redemption. |
| Format | Online only: Official Public Sheriff Sale Website run by RealAuction, at lucas.sheriffsaleauction.ohio.gov |
| Selling office | Lucas County Sheriff, selling on court order; tax foreclosure determinations for abandoned and nonproductive land are made by the County Treasurer's Office |
Sources: Lucas County Sheriff, Sheriff's Sales and Foreclosures. Lucas County Treasurer, Sheriff Sales. Ohio Revised Code Section 5723.04, forfeited land list and annual sale. Confirm with the selling office before relying on any date on this page: sales move, terms change, and owners can pay and stop a foreclosure at any point before the sale is confirmed.
Research Lucas County 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 Lucas County, searchable by address, owner, or county, including parcels that never reach a sale list.
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How Ohio tax foreclosure sales work
- Taxes go delinquent and the lien attaches. Ohio real estate taxes are a lien on the property. The county auditor and treasurer certify the delinquent land, and the county prosecuting attorney files a foreclosure action in the court of common pleas under ORC 5721.18. Counties that have adopted it can also run an expedited foreclosure before the county board of revision under ORC 323.66, a track aimed at abandoned land. There is no lien auction to buy into as an individual: Ohio lets its larger counties sell tax lien certificates only in bulk, in large bundles to qualified financial lenders (ORC 5721.30 to 5721.43), and a lender that buys certificates forecloses through this same sheriff sale after at least a year, which is why several counties in this set run a separate certificate foreclosure sale day.
- The court orders the sale and the sheriff runs it. Once the court finds the taxes due, it orders the property sold. The county sheriff conducts the sale the way Ohio judicial sales run: advertised in advance, with the sale list posted by the sheriff, and held in person at the place the county designates or online on the Official Public Sheriff Sale Website where the county has moved its sales there (ORC 2329.153).
- The first sale has a statutory floor. At the first offering, the property cannot sell for less than the lesser of two amounts: the auditor's fair market value of the parcel plus the costs of the action, or the total of the taxes, assessments, charges, penalties, interest and costs the court found due (ORC 5721.19(A), as amended effective April 9, 2025). If it does not sell, it is offered again on the second date in the advertisement; a parcel that still draws no buyer is forfeited to the state and moves to the leftover channels described below.
- The gavel is not the end: the court confirms the sale. After the sale the sheriff reports it and the court reviews and confirms it (ORC 2329.31). The purchaser pays the deposit at the sale and the balance on the terms the order sets, and the sheriff executes the deed after confirmation. A winning bid that is not paid is contempt territory: read your county's deposit and balance rules before you bid, because they are enforced.
- The owner can redeem until confirmation, and never after. At any time before the court confirms the sale, the owner may redeem by paying the full amount due, taxes, penalties, interest and costs (ORC 5721.25). The moment the sale is confirmed, the redemption right ends. (In a board of revision case the equivalent cutoff is the expiry of the alternative redemption period under ORC 323.78.) That hard stop is what makes an Ohio tax deed different from a Texas or Georgia one: no two year wait, no 12 month premium period, and no redemption premium paid to the buyer at all.
How bidding works in Lucas County
Register online at lucas.sheriffsaleauction.ohio.gov before bidding. A tax sale bidder must also submit a completed and notarized delinquent tax affidavit under Section 5721.19(J) no later than 10:00 a.m. on the Wednesday before the Thursday auction, at least 24 hours ahead. The platform may still let a bidder bid without it, but the Treasurer and Sheriff both state that a bidder who missed the affidavit deadline is not eligible to buy, and the Sheriff may ask the court to vacate such a sale and dispose of the deposit as the court directs.
- The deposit is real money, committed at the sale. Ohio sheriffs collect the deposit in the form and on the deadline the county publishes, and a purchaser who fails to pay the balance faces forfeiture of the deposit and court sanctions. Read your county's rule above before you bid.
- Confirmation is the finish line. Nothing is final until the court confirms the sale. Until that entry files, the owner can still pay everything due and take the property back out of the sale.
Terms: what a bid actually costs
| Deposit, Lucas County | Tax deposit is electronic only, through the sale website, by debit transaction or other authorized electronic transfer payable to the Sheriff of Lucas County. If the judgment creditor is the winning bidder, no deposit is required. |
| Payment, Lucas County | The remaining balance is due within 30 days of the Sheriff's notification after confirmation, not within 30 days of the sale. Taxes are paid according to the last tax bill due at the time of sale and there is no tax proration. |
| What is sold | The property itself, at a court ordered sheriff sale, with a sheriff's deed issued after the court confirms the sale. Ohio sells tax lien certificates only in bulk to institutional lenders (ORC 5721.30 to 5721.43), never to individual buyers at a public auction; a certificate holder's foreclosure comes back through this same sheriff sale. |
| Minimum bid (first sale) | The lesser of the auditor's fair market value of the parcel plus the costs of the action, or the total of the taxes, assessments, charges, penalties, interest and costs found due in the foreclosure judgment (ORC 5721.19(A), as amended effective April 9, 2025). A second offering runs on the terms in the advertisement and the order. |
| Redemption | The owner may redeem at any time before the court confirms the sale, by paying the full amount due (ORC 5721.25). After confirmation there is no redemption, and Ohio pays the buyer no redemption premium: the return is the property, not a premium. |
| Title | The sheriff's deed after confirmation conveys the property under the foreclosure decree, which disposes of the liens joined in the action. It is not a warranty deed from the owner; what the decree did not reach, and condition, access and zoning, remain the buyer's homework. |
| Costs on top of the bid | Budget the deposit, the balance, and the deed and recording charges the county publishes. On online sales the platform terms can add buyer side fees; your county page states what its sources publish. |
Second sale, nonproductive and abandoned land
Parcels unsold at the first monthly tax sale are offered again at a second sale two weeks later. Nonproductive land marked with an asterisk may be sold or transferred to the electing subdivision if no bid meeting the statutory requirements is received, and abandoned land marked with a dagger is offered only at the first sale date. Parcels that are forfeited after two failed offerings move to the Auditor forfeited land sale programme under Chapter 5723, which the Auditor administers annually by law, although no Lucas sale date was published on the sources consulted.
Before you bid
- Know which track the parcel is on. A common pleas foreclosure and an expedited board of revision foreclosure reach the same sheriff sale by different roads, and the board of revision track is aimed at abandoned land, with the county land bank often in line for what does not sell. The track changes who else wants the parcel.
- Check the list in sale week. Owners pay, courts stay sales, and parcels get withdrawn up to sale day. The advertised list is the starting list, never the selling list.
- Price the confirmation wait, not a redemption period. Your capital is committed from the deposit to the deed, and until the court confirms, the owner can redeem at the full amount due. There is no premium for that wait in Ohio; the payoff is a deed with no redemption tail once confirmation lands.
- Set the maximum before the sale opens. The free Max-Bid Calculator below works backwards from your resale or hold value to the highest bid you can pay, with the costs shown.
Every Ohio county in this set
One page per county, each verified against its own sheriff, treasurer or court source. Ohio has 88 counties; this set is the top 20 by population and sale activity.
- Cuyahoga County tax sales
- Franklin County tax sales
- Hamilton County tax sales
- Summit County tax sales
- Montgomery County tax sales
- Lucas County (this page)
- Butler County tax sales
- Stark County tax sales
- Lorain County tax sales
- Mahoning County tax sales
- Warren County tax sales
- Lake County tax sales
- Delaware County tax sales
- Clermont County tax sales
- Trumbull County tax sales
- Medina County tax sales
- Licking County tax sales
- Greene County tax sales
- Portage County tax sales
- Fairfield County tax sales
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