# Tax delinquent list skip tracing: from the county file to a call list

URL: https://skipmatch.com/tax-delinquent-list-skip-tracing
Last updated: 2026-10-02

## Key facts

- Price: a flat $0.03 a record at any list size from 50 to 100,000 records.
- Unit: Priced per matched record.
- Minimum order: 50 records
- Minimum charge: Minimum charge $0.50 when any record matches.
- Single search: Single search: $0.10, charged only on a match, paid from prepaid credit ($10 minimum top-up).
- Prepaid credit: Prepaid credit expires 12 months after your last credit purchase, single search or credit-paid list, and unused credit is refundable on request within 90 days of purchase.
- Free tool: Check your list free at /tools/skip-trace-csv-checker. Check columns, split addresses and download a fixed CSV in your browser before tracing at $0.03 a record. No account needed.
- Subscription: None. A list order is paid for on its own by card or prepaid credit.
- Max per order: 100,000 rows or 50 MB per file
- Output: Up to 10 phones per owner, each with its line type (mobile, landline or VoIP), plus emails where found
- Sources: 3 core providers: idiCORE, Enformion and Delvepoint
- Not for: FCRA uses: credit, insurance, employment or tenant screening
- Prices last changed: 2026-10-02
- Last updated: 2026-10-02

Tax delinquent list skip tracing looks up phone numbers and emails for the owners on a county delinquent list, which gives names, parcels and often mailing addresses but no phones. Turn the county's PDF or export into a CSV with one owner per row, trace the tax-roll mailing address, and see the price before you pay.

## Short answer

You do not need a skip tracing service to get the list. The county treasurer or tax collector gives it out, and because many lists carry the owner's mailing address, you can mail the owners straight from it. A skip trace earns its place only when you want to call or text: it looks up phone numbers and emails for each owner name and address you upload.

The work is in the file. County lists arrive as PDFs, portal exports or newspaper notices, with names printed last name first and addresses squeezed onto one line. Get them into a CSV with a name and one complete mailing address per row, and the list is ready to price and trace.

## Where the list comes from

The office that collects property tax keeps the list of parcels whose taxes are unpaid. Depending on the state it is called the county treasurer, the tax collector or a delinquent tax office. You can usually get the list in one of four ways:

- From the county website, where many counties post the delinquent list or the tax sale list ahead of a sale.
- From a legal notice in a local newspaper, where state law requires the list to be published.
- By asking the office for a copy, in person, by email or through a public records request.
- By searching the county's online tax portal parcel by parcel, which suits a short list.

What two counties publish, as illustrations only (every county does it differently):

- Charleston County, South Carolina, Delinquent Tax Division. Posts its real property and mobile home tax sale listings as Excel files, updates them before the sale, and runs the sale ad in the Post & Courier on the three preceding Wednesdays. Delinquent Tax Sale, Charleston County, checked 2026-09-25.
- Clark County, Nevada, County Treasurer. Publishes the notice of delinquent taxes that Nevada law (NRS 361.565) requires, as a PDF notice and a PDF table the county labels its spreadsheet version, giving the parcel number, the owner of record and the amount due. No mailing address. Notice of Delinquent Taxes (NRS 361.565), Clark County, checked 2026-09-25.

The second example matters for tracing: a list with a parcel number and an owner name but no mailing address is not ready to upload. Look each parcel up on the county's property record for the owner's mailing address first; skip tracing by parcel number covers that step.

## From county PDF or portal to a traceable CSV

Skipmatch reads .csv files only, from 50 to 100,000 rows and up to 50 MB. A PDF or an Excel workbook has to become a CSV first. Five steps:

- Get the list in the best format the county has. A spreadsheet or CSV export beats a PDF. If the county only posts a PDF, ask the treasurer or tax collector's office whether it can send the same list as a spreadsheet.
- Pull the table out of a PDF. If you can select the text in the PDF, import the table: recent Windows versions of Excel (Microsoft 365) do it under Data, Get Data, From File, From PDF, and the free tool Tabula does the same. A scanned PDF needs OCR first.
- Make it one parcel per row. Delete repeated page headers, page numbers and subtotal lines. Join any owner name, second owner or legal description that wrapped onto the next line back onto its own row.
- Split names and addresses into columns. Put the owner's first and last name in their own columns, or write the full name as LAST, FIRST. Give the mailing address its own street, city, state and ZIP columns.
- Save as CSV and check it before you upload. Save the sheet as CSV UTF-8, run it through the free CSV checker to see how the columns map, then upload it and confirm the mapping before the list is priced.

### What trips up a county file

- Names printed last name first. Tax rolls often print SMITH JOHN A. We spot that order across the whole file (a ; between owners or a middle initial at the end) and read it last name first, but a file of plain two-word names gives nothing to go on. Add a comma (SMITH, JOHN A is read as last name Smith, first name John) or split the name into two columns.
- City, state and ZIP on one line. PDFs usually print CHARLESTON SC 29401 under the street. Split it into three columns; the upload needs street, city, state and ZIP each mapped.
- ZIP codes that lost a leading zero. ZIP+4 is fine (only the first five digits are used), but a 4-digit ZIP is not padded back to 5. Format the column as text before you paste.

Run the finished file through the skip trace CSV checker. It reads the file in your browser, shows which columns it takes as the name and each address, and counts the rows and duplicates the way the upload does. The full column rules are in the guide to formatting a CSV for skip tracing.

## Columns to keep and the address choice

A row needs a name and one complete address block: street, city, state and ZIP. Every other column you keep is returned unchanged beside the results, so there is no reason to throw away the parcel number or the amount due.

| On the county list | What to do with it | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Owner name | Map it. Split it into first and last name, or write it LAST, FIRST. | A name is required. A last-name-first name with no comma is read right only when the file shows that order (see the list above). |
| Second owner (SMITH JOHN & MARY, ET AL) | Give each person you want traced a row of their own. | A row holds one name. The first owner named is the one to trace first. |
| Owner mailing address (street, city, state, ZIP) | Map it as the mailing address. This is the address to trace. | It is where the county sends the tax bill, so it points at the owner. One complete address block is required. |
| Property (situs) address | Map it as the property address when it is a real street address. | Adding it alongside the mailing address can help, but each parcel then prices as its own row (see below). |
| Parcel number (APN, PIN, TMS) | Keep it as an extra column. | It is not used to find the owner, but it comes back unchanged beside the results, so every result stays tied to its parcel. |
| Amount due, tax years, sale date | Keep them as extra columns. | They come back unchanged, ready to sort or filter the call list. |
| Legal description, acreage, class code | Keep or delete. They are not used for matching. | Long legal descriptions that wrap across lines are the usual cause of broken rows in a PDF import. |
| Page headers, page numbers, subtotals | Delete them. | Left in, they can add rows to the price (repeats of an identical row are removed, others are not), and none has an owner to trace. |

### Trace the tax-roll mailing address

The mailing address on a delinquent list is where the county sends the tax bill, so it points at the owner, wherever the owner lives. The property address points at the parcel and whoever is there: a tenant, a relative, or on vacant land often no one, and sometimes no street number at all. Map the mailing address; add the property address when it is a real street address. The guide to the mailing address versus the property address explains the difference in detail.

### Owners with several parcels

A delinquent list often names the same owner on several parcels. Rows are removed as duplicates before the list is priced only when every mapped field matches. Map just the name and mailing address and the repeat rows for one owner drop out, so that owner is traced and priced once; keep your original file to match the other parcels back by owner. Map the property address too and each parcel stays its own row.

### Companies, trusts and estates

A name containing LLC, INC, TRUST, ESTATE or a similar marker is kept whole rather than split into first and last name, and a company name is not a person to call. Trace the person behind it instead: see skip tracing LLC-owned property, and for a deceased owner, probate list skip tracing.

## What comes back

For each row, the result file carries:

- Up to 10 phone numbers for the owner, ranked, each labelled mobile, landline or VoIP.
- Email addresses where they exist.
- A flag on every row: HIT when at least one phone or email came back, MISS when none did.
- Every column you uploaded, parcel number and amount due included, unchanged and in its original order.

Not every owner comes back with a phone or an email; the flag shows which did. See a full result on the sample file page.

A phone number in a result file is not consent to be called. Scrub every number against the federal and state do-not-call registries and your own list before you call or text. Every Skipmatch account accepts the permissible-use terms before its first order. This is general information, not legal advice.

## Price at typical county list sizes

Skipmatch prices per matched record, and every owner you trace is one row. The whole list is priced at that one rate. That is under 5 cents a record on every list. County lists vary widely in length, so the sizes below are examples.

| List | Rows | Per record | At most |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Smallest order | 50 | $0.03 | $1.50 |
| Short list | 400 | $0.03 | $12.00 |
| Medium list | 2,500 | $0.03 | $75.00 |
| Long list | 12,000 | $0.03 | $360.00 |
| Several counties combined | 30,000 | $0.03 | $900.00 |

- CSV checker
- CSV format
- Mailing vs property address
- For investors
- Skipmatch pricing
- Sample result

## Questions

Q: Where do I get a tax delinquent list?
A: From the county office that collects property tax, usually called the treasurer or the tax collector. Many counties post the list or the tax sale list on their website before a sale, some publish it in a local newspaper, and you can ask the office for a copy. Ask for it as a spreadsheet rather than a PDF.

Q: Do I need to skip trace a tax delinquent list?
A: Not to get it: the county gives the list out, and a skip tracing service adds nothing to that step. Not to mail the owners either, since many lists carry the mailing address the tax bill goes to. You need a skip trace only to call or text them, because county lists rarely include phone numbers.

Q: Is a tax delinquent list public record?
A: In many states, yes: property tax records are public, and state law often requires the delinquent list or the tax sale list to be published before a sale. Nevada, for example, requires a notice of delinquent taxes. Rules vary by state and county. This is general information, not legal advice.

Q: Which address do I trace on a tax delinquent list?
A: The owner's mailing address from the tax roll, because it is where the county sends the bill and so points at the owner. The property address points at the parcel and whoever lives there, which is often no one on vacant land. Map the mailing address, and add the property address when it is a real street address.

Q: How much does it cost to skip trace a county tax delinquent list?
A: Skipmatch prices per matched record: a flat $0.03 a record at any list size from 50 to 100,000 records. Each owner you trace is one row, so a list of 2,500 owners costs at most $75.00. Orders start at 50 records, and you see the total before you pay. Minimum charge $0.50 when any record matches.