Ware County, GA tax sales

County offices

County notes

• •The dedicated Tax Sales page in the Tax Commissioner's main navigation (tax-sales.html) is an empty template: it renders the heading and the contact sidebar with no sale dates, bidder terms, or property list. The full Property Tax Sale Information section lives on the News page instead, which is where all verified sale logistics below come from.
• •Sale venue is the Ware County Administration Building, Board of Commissioners Room, 305 Oak Street, Waycross, GA 31501. This is the same building as the Tax Commissioner's office, not the Ware County Courthouse at 800 Church Street.
• •Legal advertising runs in the Saturday edition of the Waycross Journal Herald, in the legal section under the heading Sheriff Sales, for four consecutive weeks before the sale. That newspaper run is the only advance public notice of which parcels are going to sale.
• •The pre sale property list is available only in person in Room 115A of the Administration Building, at least one week before the sale. Parcels drop off the list as owners pay, so the list an investor picks up early will shrink by sale day.
• •Payment is due immediately at the close of the sale in cash or certified funds, and bidders must show valid state issued identification. No financing window and no post sale settlement period are offered.
• •Excess funds from prior sales are published as a downloadable Excel file linked from the Excess Funds page, along with a Ware County Excess Funds Policy PDF. Claims go to waretax@warecountyga.gov.
• •Office staff named on the Contact page: Roger Collins, Tax Commissioner; Laura Cox, Chief Deputy Tax Commissioner; Annette Perritt, Deputy Tax Commissioner. Office hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm. Fax is (912) 287-4468.
• •The site publishes two different phone numbers for the same office. The Contact page and every page sidebar give (912) 490-4305, while the FAQ and News pages give (912) 287-4305 for billing and collection questions. Try (912) 490-4305 first.
• •The News page carries a stale 2022 holiday schedule alongside the sale procedure text, so treat the sale procedure as the county's standing practice and confirm the current sale date and terms by phone before traveling.
• •Delinquency mechanics per the FAQ: real and personal property taxes are due November 15. For bills issued July 1, 2016 and later, interest accrues at the Federal Reserve prime rate plus 3 percent, with a 5 percent penalty added every 120 days up to a 20 percent maximum. After 90 days delinquent, a fi. fa. lien is recorded with the Clerk of Superior Court, and the Tax Commissioner may then levy on the property.
• •For pre bid diligence, the Ware County Board of Assessors is at 305 Oak Street, Suite 154, Waycross, GA 31501, (912) 490-4383, Chief Appraiser Billy Carter. The Board of Assessors page links property record search to the qPublic portal for Ware County. The county covers roughly 25,000 real property parcels.
• •Deed copies come from the Clerk of Superior Court record center in the Ware County Courthouse, 800 Church Street, per the Tax Commissioner FAQ.
• •The Search and Pay Taxes portal at warecounty.governmentwindow.com is bot protected and could not be loaded for verification, so nothing from that portal is reported here. It is a tax billing and payment system, not an auction site.

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.

See the full Georgiarules and every county →