Kershaw County, SC: The Year After the November 2, 2026 Tax Sale

By Tax Sale Atlas, November 11, 2026

Kershaw County set its 2026 delinquent tax sale for Monday, November 2, at the Kershaw County Recreation Department, 1042 West DeKalb Street in Camden. If you won an item there, what you hold for now is a tax sale receipt. South Carolina gives the owner a year to redeem, and the rules for that year decide what your money earns.

Here is that year in dates and dollars, built from the county's sale notice, its last posted pre-sale list and Chapter 51 of Title 12 of the South Carolina Code. The county profile, with contacts and the sale calendar, is on our Kershaw County tax sale page.

What was left on the list

The Treasurer's Delinquent Matters page links a "Tax Sale List." On November 11 it served a spreadsheet saved November 1, 2026, the day before the sale. It holds 284 items. Their item numbers run from 8 to 1,281 with gaps, so we read it as the advertised list after paid items dropped off.

Most of what remained is small debt. By our count of the list's "Total Tax Due" column:

Those repeat owners mattered on sale day. Under S.C. Code 12-51-50, once enough money has come in to cover all of a defaulting owner's taxes, assessments, penalties and costs, that owner's remaining items "must not be sold." An item a bidder planned to bid on late in the day could drop out that way.

The starting bid caps your interest

The notice says the county "starts the bidding with the amount of taxes/penalties/cost due the County, plus current taxes." That opening figure is the bid entered for the Forfeited Land Commission under 12-51-55, which the notice calls the "Starting Bid Price." Write it down for every item you won. It caps the interest a redemption can pay you. You still get your full bid back.

Payment was due the day of the sale, by cash or certified check. The notice says all bids are final and that failing to comply brings a $500 fine.

The redemption year, and what it pays

Under 12-51-90(A), the defaulting taxpayer, a grantee from the owner, or a mortgage or judgment creditor may redeem within twelve months from the date of the sale. For an item sold November 2, 2026, that runs to about November 2, 2027.

If the item is redeemed, you get your money back with interest instead of the property. The Delinquent Tax Office cancels the sale in the tax sale book and mails you a notice to return the tax sale receipt, and you are refunded the purchase price plus interest (12-51-100).

That interest is one lump sum, a flat share of your whole bid, set by which three-month block of the redemption period the redemption falls in (12-51-90(B)):

Redeemed inInterest
Months 1 to 33% of the bid
Months 4 to 66% of the bid
Months 7 to 99% of the bid
Months 10 to 1212% of the bid

The same subsection adds the cap: in every redemption, interest "must not exceed the amount of the bid on the property submitted on behalf of the forfeited land commission." Say an item's starting bid was $500 and you won it at $6,000:

The rule of thumb: once your bid passes about 8.3 times the starting bid, the 12% tier hits the cap. Past about 33 times, even a redemption in the first three months hits it. The list's "Total Tax Due" may not include the current taxes the notice adds to the starting bid, so get each item's actual starting bid from the office. On a $464 starting bid, the 12% tier hits the cap once the winning bid passes about $3,870.

Dates for the calendar

Before the deed: assignment, or a voided sale

Assign it. Before the redemption period ends you can assign your interest. Under 12-51-90(A) the new holder gives the Delinquent Tax Office a witnessed and notarized conveyance, and the office replaces your name in the tax sale book.

A voided sale. If the official finds, before title passes, that a required step was not done properly, 12-51-150 lets the official void the sale and refund the amount paid plus interest "actually earned by the county." Kershaw's notice says those funds sit in a non-interest-bearing account, so "no interest shall be paid on voided sales."

Where an overbid goes

If the item goes to a tax title, the cash above the taxes, assessments, penalties and costs is an overage. Section 12-51-130 applies it first to any outstanding municipal tax liens on the property. The rest belongs to the owner of record immediately before the redemption period ended. It is payable 90 days after the deed is executed unless another claimant starts a court action in that time. An overage nobody claims or assigns within five years of the sale escheats to the county's general fund. The Treasurer's Office lists overage claims among its delinquent-tax duties.

Before you count on the deed

More from Tax Sale Atlas

  1. Kershaw County, SC tax sale page: office, contacts and sale timing.
  2. All South Carolina counties, with each county's sale logistics.
  3. Due diligence before a tax sale: how to value a parcel before any bid.

Tax Sale Atlas is a reference site for tax sale investors. This note is general information, not legal or financial advice. Confirm every date, amount and rule with the Kershaw County Delinquent Tax Office before you act on it.

Sources