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Tennessee · TN

Sell your land in Tennessee.

Two questions decide most Tennessee land deals before anyone talks about price: whether the parcel is enrolled in Greenbelt, and whether the Tennessee Valley Authority holds an interest in the ground between you and the water.

Selling vacant land in Tennessee carries no state disclosure form for raw ground. Greenbelt classification lowers the annual bill and bills you back on change of use. On reservoir frontage the TVA may hold flowage rights below your treeline, and in East Tennessee slope and limestone decide what can actually be built.

Tax sale type
Tax lien
Redemption — vacant land
30 days where the county shows the land is vacant or abandoned
Redemption — other property
1 year
Rate on redemption
10% annual interest
Closings handled by
Title company
Tennessee tax sale and closing at a glance
TennesseeWhat applies
Tax sale typeTax lien
Redemption — vacant land30 days where the county shows the land is vacant or abandoned
Redemption — other property1 year
Rate on redemption10% annual interest
Closing conducted byTitle company

Redemption runs at different stages in different states — before a sale in some, after it in others, and not at all in a few. The sections below set out how it works in Tennessee, and where they and this table describe different clocks, the sections are the precise account. The vacant-land figure above comes from T.C.A. § 67-5-2701(a)(1)(D). Statutes are amended, and a redemption deadline is not a thing to take from a website — confirm it with the county or an attorney in that state before you act on it.

Last reviewed

Figures describe Tennessee generally. Counties administer their own sales and their own calendars — your county treasurer is the only source for a payoff figure or a sale date you can act on.

Local detail

What actually matters about land in Tennessee

What is the rollback on Tennessee Greenbelt land?

The Agricultural, Forest and Open Space Land Act of 1976 — everyone calls it Greenbelt — taxes qualifying land on present use rather than market value, at Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 67-5-1001 through 67-5-1012. Agricultural and forest classifications generally require at least fifteen acres, and no owner may enroll more than 1,500 acres in one county. When enrolled land converts to an ineligible use, § 67-5-1008 recaptures the taxes saved: the three preceding years for agricultural and forest land, five for open space. Absent a contrary term in the contract, the seller carries that rollback.

Does TVA hold rights over your Tennessee land?

On the Tennessee River reservoirs, TVA frequently owns a flowage easement across the lower portion of a lakefront parcel — the recorded right to flood it — and the terms of that particular easement, not the deed alone, govern what can be done there. Separately, Section 26a of the TVA Act, 16 U.S.C. § 831y-1, requires TVA approval before anyone builds a dock, boathouse, ramp, seawall, fill, culvert or comparable obstruction along the river or its tributaries, with the regulations at 18 CFR Part 1304. A lot with an approved dock and a lot where none has ever been permitted price differently.

Do you need a disclosure form for Tennessee vacant land?

The Tennessee Residential Property Disclosure Act, Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-5-201 and following, governs transfers of residential real property of not less than one and not more than four dwelling units. Vacant land has no dwelling, so the statutory form does not apply and there is nothing for you to fill out. That is not license to bury a known problem — misrepresenting a defect you know about carries the same consequences it always did. It does mean the work of establishing access, boundaries and buildability falls to whoever asks, which on unimproved ground is normally the buyer.

What makes East Tennessee land hard to build on?

The Valley and Ridge in East Tennessee and the limestone country through the middle of the state are karst: sinkholes, caves and springs sit beneath ordinary-looking pasture, and Tennessee holds more than ten thousand documented caves. A sinkhole changes septic siting, foundation design and stormwater, and it surfaces in a soil evaluation rather than on a plat. Grade compounds it — a steep parcel spends its budget on a driveway and a building pad before anything gets framed. Hillside and ridgetop rules are adopted locally, not statewide, so what a slope permits in one county it may not in the next.

Questions

Selling land in Tennessee

Will selling my Greenbelt land trigger rollback taxes?

Only if the qualifying use stops — a sale by itself does not end it. Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-5-1008 recaptures the taxes saved when enrolled land converts to an ineligible use, covering the three preceding years for agricultural and forest land and five years for open space. If the buyer keeps farming or keeps it in timber, the classification generally continues. Where a rollback does come due, the seller is liable unless the contract shifts it, so it is worth settling in writing. Your county assessor can quantify the exposure on your parcel.

Does TVA control what happens on my lakefront lot?

Part of it, often. TVA commonly holds a recorded flowage easement over the lower ground on reservoir parcels, and that easement's own terms set what may be built or cleared within it. Section 26a of the TVA Act, 16 U.S.C. § 831y-1, separately requires TVA approval for docks, boathouses, ramps, seawalls, fills and similar structures along the Tennessee River system. None of this prevents a sale. It does mean a buyer will want to know where the easement line falls and whether any existing structure was ever permitted.

Do I need a seller disclosure for vacant land in Tennessee?

No. The Residential Property Disclosure Act at Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-5-201 and following applies to residential property of one to four dwelling units, so it does not reach land with nothing built on it and there is no state form to complete. You still cannot misrepresent something you know — an undisclosed defect you were aware of is a separate problem from a missing form. Practically, telling a buyer what you know about access, flooding or a sinkhole shortens the deal rather than complicating it.

Tennessee primary sources

Where a source is named after its publisher rather than the state, it is a third-party mirror of the code — several state legislatures publish no stable public index. A mirror can lag an amendment, so confirm anything time-critical against the county or an attorney.

Sources for the figures above

These are secondary references, accurate enough to orient you and not a substitute for the statute or your county. Tax procedure changes; nothing here is legal advice.

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Tennessee law, tax procedure and county practice vary and they change. Nothing here is legal or tax advice about your parcel. Before you act on a deadline, confirm it with the county or with an attorney in that state. See our editorial standards for how this is researched and how to tell us if something is wrong.

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We buy vacant land across Tennessee and pay the closing costs. Back taxes are settled from the proceeds. No listing agreement, no fee, and no obligation to accept anything.

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