Dawson County, GA tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •Sale is conducted in person. Dawson County uses no online auction platform such as GovEase, RealAuction or Bid4Assets.
• •Timing is derived from the county's own official record of completed sales rather than from a standing published schedule. The Excess Tax Sale Funds List shows five consecutive years of sales on the first Tuesday in May: 5/3/2022, 5/2/2023, 5/7/2024, 5/6/2025 and 5/5/2026.
• •As of the most recent check the posted Tax Sale List PDF contains only the words "No Tax Sale at this time," so no sale is currently scheduled.
• •Nicole Stewart Brooksher is listed as "Dawson County Tax Commissioner / Sheriff Ex-Officio," and Chief Deputy Tax Commissioner Amanda Jarrett is listed as "Deputy Ex-Officio," confirming the office levies and cries the sale itself rather than the Sheriff's Office.
• •The office employs a dedicated Delinquent Tax Specialist (Sarah Griggs) for tax sale and delinquency questions.
• •Payment at the sale is certified funds only: cash, cashier's check or money order, due immediately at the close of the auction.
• •Successful bidders receive a Sheriff's Deed and cannot access the property for one year and one day. Barment of the right to redeem and a quiet title action are required to obtain marketable title.
• •Excess funds are not held by the county. They sit with Weissman Attorneys at Law, contact ExcessFunds@weissman.law.
• •The office is at 25 Justice Way, Suite 1222, inside the courthouse in downtown Dawsonville. Posted hours differ slightly between pages: the Contact page lists Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. while the county department page and the site's news banner list 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
• •The county's main government site (dawsoncountyga.gov) has no dedicated tax sale page. A site search returns only tax information, exemption, estimator and assessor pages, so the Tax Commissioner's own site is the authoritative sale source.
• •Property value questions go to the Dawson County Tax Assessor's Office at (706) 344-3590, a separate office from the Tax Commissioner.

Georgia rules

Redemption

The right to redeem runs for 12 months from the date of the sale and does not end there. It continues after the year until the tax deed purchaser forecloses it by serving and publishing the statutory barment notice, which cannot be started until 12 months have passed. The purchaser delivers the notice to the sheriff at least 45 days before the redemption deadline named in it, and publishes it once a week for four consecutive weeks in the six months immediately before that deadline. Redemption puts title back in the defendant in fi. fa. subject to the liens that existed at the sale, and the purchaser must execute and record a quitclaim deed. Title under a tax deed recorded on or after July 1, 1996 ripens by prescription four years after recording. Judicial in rem foreclosures under Article 5 run on a different clock: the owner has 60 days after the sale to redeem by paying the minimum bid price into the superior court.O.C.G.A. 48-4-40, who may redeem and when (2024 Code of Georgia)O.C.G.A. 48-4-40Verified Jul 30, 2026

Deed deposit

Georgia sets no statewide percentage deposit. A purchaser at a judicial sale may tender cash or a cashier's or certified check drawn for the purchase price and issued or certified by a federally insured financial institution. Counties publish their own payment terms, and many require payment in full at the close of the sale, so confirm the terms with the tax commissioner before bidding.O.C.G.A. 48-4-1, Procedures for sales under tax levies and executions (2024 Code of Georgia)O.C.G.A. 48-4-1Verified Jul 30, 2026

Surplus proceeds

Excess funds left after taxes, costs, and the expenses of the sale belong to the former owner and to recorded lienholders in order of priority. The officer who sold the property must mail notice of the excess funds by first-class mail within 30 days to the record owner at the time of the sale, to the holder of each security deed, and to every other party with a recorded equity interest or claim, and may file an interpleader action in superior court. Funds still unclaimed five years after the sale are paid over to the Georgia Department of Revenue, after which only a court order from an interpleader action releases them.O.C.G.A. 48-4-5, Payment of excess (2024 Code of Georgia)O.C.G.A. 48-4-5Verified Jul 30, 2026

Governing statute

O.C.G.A. Title 48, Chapter 4Official Code of Georgia Annotated, public access published for the Georgia General Assembly by the Georgia Code Revision CommissionO.C.G.A. Title 48, Chapter 4Verified Jul 25, 2026

A tax deed does not convey marketable title. Most buyers file a quiet title action before they can resell or insure the property. See the due diligence guide.

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