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Guide 06
5 min read · updated October 22, 2026
Pennsylvania's sheriff sales run on statewide court rules that leave a great deal to each county. How a sale is advertised, how the money is distributed and when the deed is delivered are the same in all 67 counties; the deposit, the payment deadline and the format of the sale are not. Our records hold 2,407 upcoming Pennsylvania sheriff sales in 14 counties; the next is in Lehigh County on October 23, 2026, with 151 properties listed. The median opening bid across the Pennsylvania sales we hold is $12,200.
A mortgage foreclosure in Pennsylvania is a civil action in the county Court of Common Pleas. For a residential mortgage, the complaint should aver that the lender gave the pre-foreclosure notice required by Act 6 of 1974 [1], and many loans also require the state's Act 91 notice of the homeowner emergency mortgage assistance program. Most cases end in a default or summary judgment.
Sheriffs sell on other judgments too: a judgment on a debt, executed against the debtor's real estate, and municipal and school tax claims, covered below. The kind of judgment changes what the buyer gets. A sale on a first mortgage generally divests the liens behind it; a sale on a money judgment or a junior lien can leave a prior mortgage in place.
The judgment "shall be enforced by a writ of execution" [2], which the plaintiff has the prothonotary issue to the sheriff. Before the sale, the plaintiff files an affidavit naming the owner and every lienholder and serves them notice; no sale can be held until it has [3].
The sale is advertised three ways:
Each sheriff's sale list for a sale day carries the same details. The Pennsylvania sheriff sales pages are built from those lists.
Pennsylvania's rules do not set a deposit. The deposit, the time to pay the balance and forfeiture are left to local practice, so each county sheriff publishes its own conditions of sale.
The note to the rules is explicit: "terms and conditions as to amount of deposit, time for payment of balance, forfeiture of deposit, resales or forfeiture and similar matters are not regulated by these rules and will be governed by local practice" [7]. A county's conditions of sale set the deposit (a percentage of the bid or a flat sum, sometimes with a minimum), the form of payment, the days allowed to pay the balance, often who pays the realty transfer tax, and what happens if a buyer defaults. Read them for the county before every sale.
The plaintiff bids differently. When the plaintiff or another lien creditor buys, the sheriff accepts its receipt instead of cash "up to the amount of the proceeds to which the purchaser is entitled" [8], though the sheriff may require the costs in cash. Plaintiffs commonly open at the sheriff's costs. And the plaintiff has to show up: "If the plaintiff or a representative of the plaintiff is not present at the sale, the real property shall not be sold" [9].
A sale can be moved to a date within 130 days by announcing it to the bidders at the sale, without new advertising [10]; the plaintiff then files a notice of the new date with the prothonotary. The plaintiff can also stay execution by written direction to the sheriff, and the sale is stayed wherever a federal or state law requires it, bankruptcy included [11]. Notice served late is cured by moving the sale to a date at least 30 days after the last service [12]. Why sheriff sales get postponed explains how to read a postponement history.
No court confirms a Pennsylvania sheriff sale. The sheriff files a schedule of how the money will be paid out, parties have ten days to file exceptions, and the deed follows.
Within 30 days after the sale, "the sheriff shall prepare a schedule of proposed distribution of the proceeds of sale" [13], with a list of the liens on the property attached. The sheriff then distributes as scheduled "unless written exceptions are filed with the sheriff not later than ten (10) days after the filing of the proposed schedule" [14], and the court decides any exceptions. Until the deed is delivered, a party can also petition the court, which "may, upon proper cause shown, set aside the sale and order a resale" [15].
If no one has petitioned, the sheriff executes and acknowledges the deed "at the expiration of twenty days but no later than 40 days after" the schedule is filed [16], and "Confirmation of the sale by the court shall not be required" [17]. Expect the deed between about three and ten weeks after the sale. The buyer records it and takes it from there, including possession, which usually takes an ejectment action if the occupants will not leave.
Pennsylvania collects delinquent real estate taxes in two ways, and only one of them uses the sheriff. In most counties the county tax claim bureau sells tax-delinquent property at its own upset, judicial and repository sales, which are not sheriff sales. Where a city, school district or other taxing body files its claims under the Municipal Claims and Tax Liens Act instead, as Philadelphia does, the claim goes to judgment and the property is sold at a sheriff sale.
Those sales carry a redemption period after the sale. The owner, or a lienholder whose lien the sale discharged, can redeem within nine months of the acknowledgment of the sheriff's deed [18], or three months in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County [19], by repaying the price, costs, taxes and interest. Vacant property cannot be redeemed once the deed is acknowledged [20]. A buyer of an occupied property at a tax sale should not count on improving or reselling it until the period runs.
Philadelphia's sheriff sells on an online auction platform rather than in a room, and lists mortgage foreclosure sales and the City's tax sales separately. The same statewide rules apply: the handbill, the schedule of distribution, ten days for exceptions, and the deed. The deposit and payment terms are Philadelphia's own, set out in the sheriff's conditions of sale, and a buyer at a tax sale there faces the nine-month redemption period on occupied property.
For the process in general, see how sheriff sales work; for the research before bidding, how to buy a house at a sheriff sale.
Each county sets its own. The statewide rules leave the amount of the deposit, the time to pay the balance and forfeiture to local practice, so the figure is in the county sheriff's conditions of sale, typically a percentage of the bid or a flat sum, due at the sale.
No. The rules say confirmation by the court is not required. Instead the sheriff files a schedule of distribution, parties have ten days to file exceptions, and the sheriff executes the deed 20 to 40 days after the schedule is filed if no one has petitioned to set the sale aside.
There is no right to redeem after a mortgage foreclosure sale, though a party can petition the court to set the sale aside before the deed is delivered. After a sheriff sale on a tax or municipal claim, the owner and some lienholders can redeem within nine months of the acknowledgment of the sheriff's deed (three months in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County), except for vacant property.
Some are. Philadelphia's sheriff sells on an online auction platform; other counties set their own format, in person or online, in their conditions of sale.
General information about Pennsylvania procedure, not legal advice. Each county sheriff sets its own deposit and terms, and the rules change; confirm with the sheriff's office before bidding.
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