Kentucky Tax Deed & Lien Auctions

Kentucky is a tax lien state. Certificate of delinquency sold by the county clerk at the amount due, with no bidding. The owner can pay it off at any time until a court foreclosure sale, and you earn 12% simple interest a year on what you paid. You can sue to foreclose once one year has passed since the taxes became delinquent.

Kentucky has no fixed redemption period. The owner can pay off the certificate at any time until the property is sold in a court foreclosure. The certificate holder may file that foreclosure once one year has passed since the taxes became delinquent, after 45 days' certified-mail notice, and must file within eleven years.

DeedFlex aggregates Kentucky tax sale listings from county auction platforms and gives each property a plain-English verdict: Worth a look, Needs review, Screened out, or Not enough data yet. Next to it is how far the research has got on it. Start with Pro ($59/mo, flat) to browse all available Kentucky properties with full deal analysis.

Key risks include: IRS federal tax liens (cleared only if the United States is named in the foreclosure suit), Certificates for other tax years held by other buyers, Severed coal, oil and gas rights (taxed and sold separately). Kentucky is a tax lien state. Each county clerk sells certificates of delinquency once a year on a statewide schedule, mostly July to October. There is no bidding: registered buyers take turns picking certificates in an order set by a random drawing, and pay the amount due. Certificates left over can then be bought from the clerk on any business day. Buying more than three in a county, more than five statewide, or more than $10,000 a year requires registering with the Department of Revenue first. A certificate earns 12% simple interest a year on what you paid; pre-lawsuit attorney fees are capped by law at $350 to $700 depending on the certificate amount, plus up to $115 in assignment fees. You must mail the owner and any mortgage holder a notice within 50 days of buying and every six months after. The owner can pay at any time before a foreclosure sale. Once one year has passed since the taxes became delinquent (and within eleven years), you may sue in circuit court after 45 days' certified-mail notice; the court sells the property at a public auction, you are paid from the proceeds, and you may bid. If the sale brings less than two-thirds of the appraised value, the owner has six months to buy it back. Severed coal, oil and gas rights are taxed and sold separately from the surface.

Opening bids vary widely by county and property. Kentucky has an average property tax rate of 0.86%, which influences opening bid amounts. DeedFlex shows the opening bid for every listed property. Where we hold a market value we can stand behind, we show it; where we do not, we say so rather than print a number we cannot support.