Gilmer County, GA tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •Sale format is in person on the courthouse square at 1 Broad Street, Ellijay. The Gilmer County Courthouse address is confirmed on the county government site as "Gilmer County Courthouse Location: 1 Broad Street Ellijay, GA 30540 706-635-4361", and the Tax Commissioner occupies Suite 105 of that building.
• •Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30am to 5pm, with a note to arrive by 4:30pm for title processing. Registration on sale day opens when the office opens at 8:30AM.
• •Opening bid formula is county-specific and unusually explicit: back taxes due the day of sale plus a flat $150.00 for deed preparation and recording.
• •Payment terms are strict. Cash or certified bank check only, due by 4:00PM the same day, one instrument per parcel. Bidders are allowed to leave and return with funds so long as they are back by 4:00PM.
• •Pre-sale collection path per the county's General Information page: interest accrues the day after the November due date at prime plus 3% divided by 12, a fi. fa. is filed with the Clerk of Courts 30 days after the delinquent notice, a 5% penalty is added at 120 days and every 120 days thereafter to a 20% maximum, then the account is turned over to DTS with admin and levy fees of up to about $230.00 covering certified notices and a title search to prepare the parcel for tax sale. Properties are posted and photographed before the sale and advertised in the Times-Courier for the four weeks prior.
• •Excess funds are not posted as a public list. The Excess Funds page directs claimants to "send an email request to BradH@weissman.law" and provides a downloadable Excess Funds Claim Form.
• •Due diligence tools the office itself points bidders to: qPublic.net (Georgia, Gilmer) for parcel location and records searched by parcel number, and the Search & Pay Taxes portal reached from the Tax Commissioner site to watch whether a target parcel's taxes get paid before the sale.
• •No live tax sale list PDF was published at the time of research. The Tax Sales page carries a commented-out link to a Tax_Sale.pdf that currently returns 404, which indicates the county swaps that document in only while a sale is advertised.
• •The Tax Sales page content loads client-side from the GovtWindow content API, so a plain non-JavaScript fetch of tax-sales.html renders an empty content block. Any future re-scrape must execute JavaScript or hit the underlying content endpoint to see the sale dates.
• •Board of Tax Assessors, for valuation questions rather than sale logistics, is reachable at (706) 276-2742 per the Tax Commissioner FAQ page.

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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