Towns County, GA tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •Tax Commissioner: Michael Anderson. Office located in the courthouse annex building at 48 River St, Suite H, Hiawassee, GA 30546. Hours Monday through Friday 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM. Fax (706) 896-6980. Email taxcommissioner@townscountyga.com (source: towns-tc-contact, towns-tc-home).
• •The September 2, 2025 sale was canceled. The Tax Commissioner's notice reads: "THE TAX SALE FOR SEPTEMBER 2ND, 2025 HAS BEEN CANCELED. ALL PARCELS ON TAX SALE HAVE BEEN EITHER PAID AND OR A PAYMENT PLAN HAS BEEN ARRANGED. THANK YOU" (source: towns-tc-cancel-2025).
• •Verified sale dates from the office's own advertisements: September 5, 2023; September 3, 2024; September 2, 2025 (canceled). All are the first Tuesday in September. The office document library also holds February 2022 and November 2022 tax sale files, so the month has not always been September (source: towns-tc-salead-2023, towns-tc-salead-2024, towns-tc-salead-2025).
• •Venue language changed with the courthouse. The 2023 advertisement set the sale "at the Temporary Courthouse, 900 North Main Street, Towns County, Georgia"; the 2024 and 2025 advertisements say "before the Courthouse door in Hiawassee, Towns County, Georgia" (source: towns-tc-salead-2023, towns-tc-salead-2024, towns-tc-salead-2025).
• •Sale terms from the advertisement: cash or certified funds, public outcry, legal hours 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, continuing to the next day if necessary. "Purchaser shall pay for title, all transfer costs, all taxes, advertising costs and recording fees." Each defendant and tenant in possession is notified of the levy and the time and place of sale (source: towns-tc-salead-2025).
• •Legal organ and pre-sale process: "The four weeks prior to the sale your property will be advertised in the Hiawassee Local newspaper with additional advertising cost added." Accounts unpaid after 12 months are turned over to a collection agency, with admin and levy fees up to $215.00 plus, covering certified notices and a title search, and the property is posted and photographed before the sale (source: towns-tc-general).
• •Property taxes are due January 10 each year. "If taxes are not paid on the property, it may be levied upon and ultimately sold" (source: towns-tc-general).
• •The two official pages state delinquency charges differently. General Information: interest added on the 10th of each month at prime plus 3% divided by 12, with a 5% penalty after 120 days and every 120 days thereafter, capped at 20%. FAQ: interest at 1% per month after the due date, with a 10% penalty on taxes not paid within 90 days. Confirm current figures with the office (source: towns-tc-general, towns-tc-faq).
• •Tax liens: "When taxes remain unpaid for more than 30 days after their due date, the taxes are subject to a tax fifa (lien) being recorded in the Office of the Clerk of Superior Court." "If the property taxes remain unpaid, the Tax Commissioner has the right and responsibility to levy on the property for non-payment." Deeds are obtained from the Clerk of Superior Court deed room in the Towns County Courthouse (source: towns-tc-faq).
• •Towns County Board of Tax Assessors phone: 706-896-3984. Parcel maps and assessment data are on qPublic at qpublic.net/ga/towns/ (source: towns-tc-faq, towns-tc-home).
• •The Tax Commissioner's public website is tax.townscountypay.com. The county government site at townscountyga.org links only to townscountypay.com and lists a separate office email of tctcstaff@hotmail.com; the Tax Commissioner site lists taxcommissioner@townscountyga.com (source: towns-county-tc-page, towns-tc-contact).
• •The Government Window portal is Cloudflare and captcha gated and returns HTTP 403 to plain HTTP clients. It was verified in a real browser session and contains bill search, property tax payment, and hotel-motel tax filing only, with no auction or bidder function (source: towns-gw-portal).
• •Research constraint: the WebSearch budget for this session was exhausted before this county was started, so discovery was done by probing and verifying official domains directly. Every URL listed in sources was fetched successfully.

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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