When a property has been sold for taxes, the Chancery Clerk is required to provide several types of notice to the property owner that the two-year period of redemption is about to expire.

We discussed this process here: https://www.craigpanterlaw.com/tax-sales-and-the-law

One form of notice is to be delivered by the Sheriff or Constable. (This only applies if the owner is a Mississippi resident.)

For many years, the statute simply said: “The Sheriff shall be required to serve personal notice as summons issued from the courts are served, and make his return to the chancery clerk issuing same.”

For this reason, Mississippi courts previously held that simply posting the notice on the owner’s door was insufficient. See Rebuild America, Inc. v. Norris, 64 So. 3d 499, 502 (Miss. Ct. App. 2010), aff'd, 64 So. 3d 480 (Miss. 2011) [posting notice on the door is not a method for personal service of process under Rule 4 of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure.]

 In 2013, perhaps in response to the Rebuild America decision, the Legislature amended the statute to read:

(a) Upon the reputed owner personally, if he can be found in the county after diligent search and inquiry, by handing him a true copy of the notice;

(b) If the reputed owner cannot be found in the county after diligent search and inquiry, then by leaving a true copy of the notice at his usual place of abode with the spouse of the reputed owner or some other person who lives at his usual place of abode above the age of sixteen (16) years, and willing to receive the copy of the notice; or

(c) If the reputed owner cannot be found after diligent search and inquiry, and if no person above the age of sixteen (16) years who lives at his usual place of abode can be found at his usual place of abode who is willing to receive the copy of the notice, then by posting a true copy of the notice on a door of the reputed owner's usual place of abode.

Thus, posting on the door is permissible under the circumstances just described.

This is a good time to remember that, whenever you read a court decision interpreting a statute, you should check whether the statute has since been amended.

S. Craig Panter

Panter Law Firm, PLLC

7736 Old Canton Road, Suite B

Madison, MS 39110

601-607-3156

Posted April 18, 2026