Will County

The 2026 timetable

The Treasurer's Annual Tax Sales page sets the dates: the tax buyer registration packet was available from October 1, 2026; buyer registration runs October 1 to November 13, 2026, received by 4:30 p.m. CT with no postmarks accepted; the tax sale list goes to registered buyers in the first week of November; the deadline to substitute a bidder or withdraw is November 20; and the sale is December 1, 2026, with check-in from 8:00 to 9:45 a.m. and bidding from 10:00 a.m. at the Will County Office Building, 302 N. Chicago St., Joliet.

On the owners' side, the Treasurer's homepage gives two cutoffs. Payments must be posted by 4:30 p.m. on October 22 to keep a parcel out of the newspaper publication, and by 4:30 p.m. on November 30 to keep it out of the December 1 sale. The online payment portal closes on November 13 at 4:30 p.m., and after that the office takes only cashier's checks, money orders or cash. Parcels drop off the list until the day before the sale.

What you are buying

The Treasurer explains it to owners in plain terms: only the unpaid balance of tax is sold, the house is not, and buyers pay the unpaid tax so that the libraries, school districts and fire departments get the money they levied. What you receive is a certificate of purchase. The owner then redeems through the Will County Clerk's office, not through you.

Illinois buyers compete on the penalty rate. The bidding starts at the statutory cap of 9% per six-month period and goes down, and the redeeming owner pays that rate once for each six-month period that has begun (35 ILCS 200/21-215, 21-355). It is not compounded and it is not an annual rate: a certificate won at 4% and redeemed after 13 months earns 12% (three periods begun), whatever the calendar says.

Large counties must enforce a single-bidder rule against related bidding entities (§ 21-205(b-5)); the threshold is 275,000 people, and Will County's population, shown in the snapshot below, is well over it. Check the registration packet for how Will County applies it.

Redemption: longer under the 2026 law

Will County's guide for owners still gives the older periods: one year for vacant non-farm land, buildings with seven or more residential units and commercial or industrial property, and 2½ years for homes with fewer than six units and everything else (35 ILCS 200/22-5).

Public Act 104-553 changed that for certificates issued on or after July 10, 2026: the general period becomes three years, while the one-year categories stay the same (§ 21-350). Certificates bought on December 1, 2026 fall under the new rule. The same law replaced the direct tax deed for those certificates with a court-ordered auction in which any surplus goes to the former owner, and it added a surplus equity fee of up to $20 per item outside Cook County (§ 21-296). Our Illinois page walks through the change.

Price a bid as a loan that can run up to three years and is repaid with the penalty you bid, not as a route to the property.

Subsequent taxes

A buyer can pay later years' unpaid taxes on a parcel it holds a certificate for and add them to the certificate (35 ILCS 200/21-355). Will County accepts these only after the second installment is delinquent or after the holder has filed a petition for tax deed, and only in person, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. For 2026, subsequent taxes are accepted from September 16.

Three ways people lose money here

1. 1. Mailing registration on November 13

   It must be received by 4:30 p.m. that day. No postmarks are accepted.

2. 2. Counting on the old 2½-year clock

   Certificates from the December 1, 2026 sale fall under the three-year period of P.A. 104-553 for most property.

3. 3. Treating the penalty as annual interest

   The rate is charged once per six-month period begun. A redemption in month 13 pays three periods, not 13/12 of a year.