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Tax Sale Atlas

Fayette County, IA tax sales

Tax Sale Atlas maps the Fayette County, IA tax sale, one of 2,553 counties in 30 states. Iowa sells tax lien certificates paying up to 24%. Sale office, calendar and list locations read from the county’s own official pages on Jul 29, 2026.

How tax lien sales work in Fayette County, seat of West Union: sale calendar, auction platform, over-the-counter lists, and the offices that run each sale.

New to tax sales? Read how Iowa tax sales work or look terms up in the glossary.

Next sale
Iowa holds no tax deed auction.
Format
ZEUS
Registration
Registration and bidding are online only.
County office
563-422-3787
Every displayed fact carries a source badge. Verified Jul 29, 2026 against official county and state pages.How we verify
On this page

How Fayette County sells delinquent taxes

From lien to deed

Iowa holds no separate tax deed auction. The county treasurer makes out a deed for each parcel sold and unredeemed immediately after 90 days have expired from the date of completed service of the notice of expiration of the right of redemption, once the holder returns the certificate of purchase and pays the deed and recording fees.

Tax certificate sale (lien)

SRI / ZEUS
Run by
Fayette County Treasurer
Frequency
annual
Typical timing
Annual tax sale held in June under Iowa Code Chapter 446.
Registration
Registration and bidding are online only.
Next expected
on the third Monday in June, 2027 (window; exact date posts closer to the sale)
Sale list
2026 Fayette County Delinquent Property Tax List (public notice)
When it runs
Annual tax sale held in June under Iowa Code Chapter 446. The county's 2026 terms and conditions state: "TAX SALE TIME & DATE: 10:00 AM on Monday, June 15, 2026." The published public notice repeats that parcels "will be offered for sale at public auction at 10:00 AM on June 15, 2026, in accordance with Chapter 446 of the Code of Iowa." Parcels paid in full before 4:00 PM Friday, June 12, 2026 were removed from the sale. Unsold parcels carry to an adjourned sale: the terms state "If some parcels remain unsold, the tax sale will be adjourned until 10:00 a.m. on Monday, August 10, 2026," and the Treasurer's portal currently posts "The annual tax sale has been adjourned until 10:00 AM on Monday August 10, 2026." Any adjourned sale is held at the Fayette County Treasurer's Office.
Registration and deposit

Registration and bidding are online only. The 2026 terms state: "All bidders must register online at www.iowataxauction.com. No in person, mailed, or e-mailed registrations will be accepted." For 2026 the registration window ran from Monday, May 18 through 11:59 PM Thursday, June 11, and no late registrations were accepted. Creating an Iowa Tax Auction account does not register a bidder for the sale; registering for the specific sale is a separate step. A non-refundable $37.00 bidder registration fee is collected by the county under Iowa Code section 446.16 and is paid at registration by ACH debit. Bidders must be at least 18 on the day of the sale. Entities other than individuals need a federal tax identification number plus either a designation of agent for service of process on file with the Iowa Secretary of State or a Chapter 547 trade-name verified statement on file with the county recorder. Registration help is available at support@iowataxauction.com or 800-800-9588.

Sale format and venue
Hybrid format: the sale is convened at the Fayette County Courthouse, 114 N Vine Street, West Union, but every bid is placed online. The public notice states the sale "will be held in the Treasurer's Office at the Fayette County Courthouse; however, all bids will be placed online at www.iowataxauction.com," and the terms confirm "BIDDERS DO NOT NEED TO ATTEND THE SALE IN PERSON." Bidding is Iowa's bid-down-ownership-interest method: parcels open at a 100% undivided interest and bidders bid downward from 99% to 1% in whole percentage increments. A random selection process breaks ties among matching bids. The bid-down affects only the potential ownership interest conveyed by a later tax sale deed, not the amount paid. The 2026 sale was planned in four batches closing at 10:30 AM, 11:00 AM, 11:30 AM and 12:00 noon, with winners emailed roughly five minutes after each batch closes and one ACH debit for the total drawn at the end of the sale from the account used for the registration fee. Purchasers pay a $20.00 certificate fee per parcel on top of the published delinquent amount. A certificate of purchase conveys no title; the owner or other interested party retains the statutory right to redeem, and only after that period expires may the holder start tax deed proceedings. Bids cannot be withdrawn and all sales are final. Delinquent parcels were published in the Oelwein Daily Register on June 2, 2026, and registered bidders can review available parcels on the auction site. Parcel detail such as assessed value and address is on the county site under the Real Estate Valuations link. Note that the main county website's Treasurer page carries general office information only; the tax sale notices, terms and delinquent list are posted on the Treasurer's iowatreasurers.org portal.
Register on SRI / ZEUS
Source: Terms and Conditions Governing the 2026 Fayette County Tax Sale (Fayette County Treasurer)· Verified Jul 29, 2026

Fayette County tax sale list and auction calendar

For Fayette County tax sale 2026 searches, use the county-run sources below rather than a copied parcel list, and confirm the parcel, registration cutoff, deposit, and payment deadline against the county before you bid.

  1. Get the advertised list

    Use 2026 Fayette County Delinquent Property Tax List (public notice) for the current advertised parcels, then recheck it before the auction.

  2. Register to bid

    Registration and bidding are online only. Full requirements are in the sale card above.

  3. Sale day

    Iowa holds no tax deed auction. Bidding runs on ZEUS; check posted sale dates, registration status, and bidding windows there.

  4. Confirm with the office

    If the list, platform, and notice disagree, use County Treasurer as the source to confirm which parcels are actually offered.

Before you bid in Fayette County

  1. Start with the live sale list

    Pull the current advertised parcels from 2026 Fayette County Delinquent Property Tax List (public notice). Lists can change before the sale, so recheck the county source before you price a parcel.

  2. Confirm registration and deposit

    Registration and bidding are online only. The 2026 terms state: "All bidders must register online at www.iowataxauction.com. No in person, mailed, or e-mailed registrations will be accepted." For 2026 the registration window ran from Monday, May 18 through 11:59 PM Thursday, June 11, and no late registrations were accepted. Creating an Iowa Tax Auction account does not register a bidder for the sale; registering for the specific sale is a separate step. A non-refundable $37.00 bidder registration fee is collected by the county under Iowa Code section 446.16 and is paid at registration by ACH debit. Bidders must be at least 18 on the day of the sale. Entities other than individuals need a federal tax identification number plus either a designation of agent for service of process on file with the Iowa Secretary of State or a Chapter 547 trade-name verified statement on file with the county recorder. Registration help is available at support@iowataxauction.com or 800-800-9588.

  3. Check the state rules that change the bid

    Read the Iowa due-diligence checklist before bidding. Redemption, liens that survive a tax deed, title cleanup, and payment deadlines can change what a parcel is worth.

  4. Set a walk-away number

    Work out what the parcel is actually worth with the rural land value estimator, then turn it into a ceiling with the tax deed max-bid calculator.

Over-the-counter (leftover) purchases

Two routes reach parcels after the June sale. Parcels that remain unsold for want of bidders are carried to adjourned sales, which the treasurer sets at intervals of not more than two months until the next annual sale. Separately, certificates struck to the county at the public bidder sale may be assigned by the county for the total amount due on the date of assignment, or for a compromised amount, under a written agreement filed with the treasurer and a 10 dollar assignment transaction fee. Ask the county treasurer which county-held certificates are available for assignment.

New to this path? Read how over-the-counter certificates work. Every state has its own name for what goes unsold, so check what Iowa calls its leftover tax-sale inventory.

Use the arrow keys to switch between these sections.

County offices

Tax Collector (runs the certificate sale)

Fayette County Treasurer

563-422-3787

Fayette County Treasurer, 114 N Vine Street, PO Box 273, West Union, IA 52175

Official website

County notes

  • The Treasurer is Kyle Jacobsen. The office sits on the second floor of the Fayette County Courthouse, to the left from the stairs or to the right from the elevator. Hours are Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
  • Phone lines are split by function. Property tax, which covers tax sale questions, is 563-422-3787. Motor vehicle and driver's license are 563-422-3798. Fax is 563-422-3855. Email is treasurer@co.fayette.ia.us.
  • Two official web presences exist. The county government page at fayettecounty.iowa.gov/departments/treasurer/ carries office and payment information, while the tax sale terms, public notice and delinquent list PDFs are published on the Treasurer's portal at iowatreasurers.org (county id 33).
  • A second version of the delinquent list, labeled 2026 Delinq Tax List as Published, is posted at https://www.iowatreasurers.org/kcfinder/upload/Fayette/2026%20Delinq%20Tax%20List%20as%20Published.pdf and returns a valid PDF.
  • The auction platform describes itself as the Iowa Tax Auction Program and runs on the Zeus Auction system. It serves multiple Iowa counties, so bidders must apply to the Fayette County sale specifically rather than relying on a general platform account.
  • Iowa Code section 446.16 is the authority the county cites for charging the bidder registration fee.
  • Third-party aggregator pages for this county surfaced during research but were not used as sources. Only the Treasurer's own documents and the auction platform were relied on.

Iowa rules

Max interest rate
24% per year, fixed by statute (not bid down)
Minimum return
No statutory minimum return; what you earn is set by the share of ownership taken at the sale
Redemption
A parcel may be redeemed at any time before the right of redemption expires. After one year and nine months from the date of sale, the certificate holder may serve a notice of expiration of the right of redemption on the person in possession, the person in whose name the parcel is taxed, and every mortgagee, contract vendor, recorded lessor, and other party of record. The right of redemption then ends 90 days after that service is complete, which means the affidavit of service has been filed with the county treasurer. Three shortened tracks exist: nine months from a public bidder sale under section 446.18, and three months from an abandoned-property or public nuisance sale under section 446.19A or 446.19B. After the treasurer delivers the deed, redemption is possible only through an equitable action in district court, and only by a person who could have redeemed during the 90-day window.
Surplus proceeds
No surplus arises. The deed conveys the parcel to the certificate holder rather than selling it to the highest bidder, so there are no excess proceeds to distribute. Where the winning bid was less than 100 percent, the deed conveys only that undivided percentage interest in the parcel.
Governing statute
Iowa Code Chapter 446

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 Iowarules and every county →

Frequently asked questions

Does Fayette County, Iowa sell tax liens or tax deeds?

Tax lien certificates. In Iowa investors buy the lien, not the property; the County Treasurer runs the sale.

When is the Fayette County tax certificate sale?

Annual tax sale held in June under Iowa Code Chapter 446. The county's 2026 terms and conditions state: "TAX SALE TIME & DATE: 10:00 AM on Monday, June 15, 2026." The published public notice repeats that parcels "will be offered for sale at public auction at 10:00 AM on June 15, 2026, in accordance with Chapter 446 of the Code of Iowa." Parcels paid in full before 4:00 PM Friday, June 12, 2026 were removed from the sale. Unsold parcels carry to an adjourned sale: the terms state "If some parcels remain unsold, the tax sale will be adjourned until 10:00 a.m. on Monday, August 10, 2026," and the Treasurer's portal currently posts "The annual tax sale has been adjourned until 10:00 AM on Monday August 10, 2026." Any adjourned sale is held at the Fayette County Treasurer's Office. Registration and bidding happen on the county's online platform. Always confirm the exact date with the County Treasurer before the sale.

How often does Fayette County hold tax deed sales?

Fayette County holds its tax deed sale none. Iowa holds no tax deed auction. Each sale is scheduled and advertised in advance, so check the county's tax deed calendar for the next posted date.

I own a property in this sale. Can I stop it?

Often yes, by paying the overdue taxes, interest, and costs before the deadline. Iowa's redemption rule: 1 year 9 months from the sale before the notice of expiration can be served, then 90 days after service is complete. Call the County Treasurer as early as possible for your exact payoff and options; deadlines are strict. Free help: lawhelp.org lists legal aid programs, and consumerfinance.gov lists HUD-approved housing counselors.

Where can I find the Fayette County tax sale list?

Fayette County posts its tax sale list at iowatreasurers.org. Lists go up ahead of each sale and keep changing until the sale date, so confirm every parcel against the county's legal advertisement before you bid.

Verified Jul 29, 2026 against official county and state sources.

Tax Sale Atlas publishes educational information about public tax sale processes. This is not legal, financial, or investment advice. Rules, dates, and fees change; confirm with the county office before you bid.

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