Pueblo County

Dates that matter

October 15 – October 30, 2026: registration with SRI for the Pueblo sale. The rules are explicit: no registrations after Friday, October 30 at 4:30 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time.

Wednesday, November 4, 4:30 p.m. MDT: last moment for owners to pay and keep their taxes out of the sale. Postmarks are not accepted. Every lien still unpaid after that is sold.

Monday, November 9 – Tuesday, November 10: the auction. Liens close hourly in batches, with the batch schedule to be set closer to the date; each certificate shows its own closing time. The Zeus listing gives 6:00 p.m. Central on November 10 as the end of the sale.

After the last batch closes, SRI submits the ACH debit for everything you won, as soon as practical. The county does not promise an exact debit date, so the money has to be in the account from November 10 onward.

Registering for Pueblo, not just for Zeus

Two registrations are needed. You join the auction system once, and then you register separately for each county's auction, because every county sets its own rules. For Pueblo, SRI forwards your registration to the Treasurer, and the Treasurer's office and SRI approve you to bid. Register early: approval is a step you cannot rush on October 30. Registration and research are at zeusauction.com.

The W-9 you complete online is what the certificates are printed from: name, address and Social Security or employer ID number. The rules say no changes will be allowed afterwards, each bidder bids and buys in the name listed, and certificates will not be issued in any other name. If you are unsure how you registered in earlier years, the Treasurer's office answers that at 719-583-6690.

You must also enter a checking account. It is the only way to pay: the winning total is debited automatically from the account used at registration, and that account must be one on which an ACH debit can be completed. If you do not have internet access, the Treasurer's office can discuss arrangements for using a computer there (719-583-6683).

How bidding works in Pueblo

The auction runs in advertising-number order. Each lien opens at a minimum bid that includes all taxes, penalties, interest and costs due to the county plus a $12.00 auction fee. That fee is paid to the auction company but is included in your certificate amount, so it earns interest like the rest of the lien.

The increment is $1.00. The county's own example: a lien with a $968 minimum accepts a first bid of $968, the next bid is $969, and so on. You can also place a confidential maximum (proxy) bid and let the system raise your bid by the increment when someone outbids you, up to your limit. You can raise a proxy at any time before the item closes, but once placed, a bid cannot be lowered or cancelled for any reason.

Bids are processed in the order received. A bid submitted before the close but processed after it still counts; one received after the close does not. Do not wait for the last seconds.

Under Colorado law each lien goes to the person who pays the highest amount in excess of the taxes, penalty, interest and costs. The amount above the minimum is a premium. Colorado does not pay interest on the premium, and it is not part of the lien you get back on redemption.

What a certificate gets you

You are buying the tax lien, not the property, and the certificate gives you no ownership or right to the land. The certificates stay in safekeeping at the Pueblo County Treasurer's office; you receive an emailed list of the liens you bought. Each one can be endorsed every year with later unpaid taxes until it is redeemed.

Interest runs from November at 13% a year, the rate the Colorado Banking Commissioner set for 2026 at nine points above the September 1 discount rate (C.R.S. 39-12-103). Where the county itself must redeem a lien, for example one sold in error, it pays under C.R.S. 39-12-111 and never less than 8% a year.

If a lien goes unredeemed, deed application procedures are handled by the Treasurer's office (719-583-6694, 6023, 6016 or 6527). Plan around the 2026 law: under Senate Bill 26-144 an application leads to a public auction of the property rather than a deed straight to the lienholder (C.R.S. title 39, article 11.5), and a lien sold this year is cancelled seven years after issue unless an application is pending (C.R.S. 39-11-148).

Buyer beware, in the county's words

The rules call the sale caveat emptor: neither SRI nor the county warrants anything about the property, descriptions are for identification only, and it is the bidder's responsibility to know what they are bidding on. No individual updated lists are published; the Treasurer's website shows whether a given property number has been paid.

Payment failures have consequences. If the ACH is rejected for lack of funds or any other reason, the bid can be cancelled (C.R.S. 39-11-116) and SRI bars a non-paying bidder from all future auctions on the site. SRI can also cancel, restart or extend an auction after technical problems, and email notices may arrive late, so check the site itself.

Three ways people lose money here

1. 1. Registering on Zeus but not for Pueblo

   Joining the platform is not enough. You register for the Pueblo sale itself and wait for the Treasurer's approval, by October 30 at 4:30 p.m. MDT.

2. 2. Fixing the W-9 later

   Certificates are issued only in the name on the W-9, and no changes are allowed after registration.

3. 3. Planning for a one-day sale

   Pueblo's 2026 sale runs two days, November 9 and 10, closing in hourly batches.