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Government Utilities Technology Service (GUTS) & county-run portals

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Government Utilities Technology Service (GUTS) & county-run portals

Vendor profile — neutral. This page describes a commercial tax-sale administration vendor and the broader category of county-operated / regional tax-sale portals. The wiki is not affiliated with GUTS, with any county, or with any competing auction platform, and nothing here is an endorsement. Operational specifics (deposit amounts, bid increments, payment windows) are set per county and change every sale cycle — verify against the county’s own current notice before relying on anything below.

Overview

Government Utilities Technology Service, Inc. (“GUTS”) is an Indiana-based government software and services company. It is located at 127 W. Main St, Suite 500, Lebanon, IN 46052, and states that it serves Indiana and Kentucky local-government offices — Indiana assessors, auditors, sheriffs, and treasurers, and Kentucky PVAs, sheriffs, cities, and schools. (g-uts.com home)

Among its services, GUTS offers tax-sale administration: a web-based application that prepares the advertising list with minimum bids, generates the “information and procedures” guide and bidder-registration form, and produces post-sale reporting (bidder list, sold items, county lien items, status list). It markets this as a way to “ensure your tax sale is conducted legally and efficiently.” (Tax Sales — GUTS)

GUTS distinguishes two sale types it supports:

  • Tax Sales — “parcels that are offered at public auction because of delinquent taxes, penalties, special assessments, and/or tax sale costs.”
  • Certificate Sales (also called Commissioners’ Sales) — “parcels that were previously offered at the county’s Tax Sale and did not sell, so the County Commissioners acquired a tax certificate.” These let the county “offer the parcels for an amount less than the original Tax Sale minimum bid” and carry “a shorter redemption period than the Tax Sale.” (Tax Sale Definitions — GUTS; Certificate Sales — GUTS)

GUTS is one example of the county-run / regional-vendor model: rather than a single national auction marketplace, each county selects a vendor (or runs the sale in-house) under its own state statute. The page also covers that category generally — the in-house / regional alternative to national online vendors.

▸ For Investors / Operators. Because GUTS prepares documents but the county controls registration, deposits, bid method, and payment timing, every county it serves is effectively a separate procedure. The published “Information and Procedures” PDF for the specific county and sale year is the controlling document. Confirm whether the sale is in-person or online, the deposit, and the same-day payment rule before registering.

Where it’s used

GUTS publishes tax-sale and certificate-sale records for a set of Indiana counties. As of retrieval, its “Tax Sale Information” index lists:

CountySale type shownNotes (from GUTS)
Boone CountyTax SaleIn-person; 2023 sale held at the Connie Lamar Meeting Room, Boone County Annex Building, Wed. Oct 18 2023, 10:00 AM
Brown CountyTax SaleListed on GUTS index
Clinton CountyTax Sale + Certificate SaleCertificate-sale records 2019–2021
LaGrange CountyTax SaleListed on GUTS index
Delaware CountyTax SaleIn-person; 2024 sale held at Heartland Hall, Delaware County Fairgrounds, 1210 N Wheeling Ave, Muncie, Tue. Oct 8 2024, 10:00 AM (GUTS shows Delaware for 2022–2023 listings)

(Tax Sale Information — GUTS; venue/date facts from the county “Information and Procedures” PDFs linked from that index: Boone, Delaware.)

Cross-link target: these are all in indiana, governed by Ind. Code 6-1.1-24 and 6-1.1-25.

Marion County (Indianapolis) — caution / vendor change. Older GUTS listings reference Marion County online sales, and Marion County’s own procedures state the sale is conducted under I.C. 6-1.1-24 & 25. However, Marion County’s 2025 online tax sale was conducted on GovEase (www.govease.com), not GUTS, with a $2,500 Treasurer’s-office deposit for the regular sale. Treat Marion’s current vendor as GovEase, and treat any GUTS↔Marion association as historical. (Marion County 2025 Online Tax Sale Information and Procedures; deposit/platform corroborated by the indy.gov tax-sale pages.)

needs_verification: a complete, current list of every county GUTS administers (the index may not be exhaustive, and county↔vendor assignments change yearly). Whether GUTS serves any Kentucky tax/certificate sales specifically (its KY footprint is described for PVA/sheriff software, not confirmed for tax-sale auction administration).

How it works

GUTS supplies the back-office tooling; the legal mechanics are Indiana’s (Ind. Code 6-1.1-24 sale / 6-1.1-25 redemption), and the operational settings are the county’s. The combination breaks down as follows.

  • Registration. Bidders complete the county’s GUTS-generated bidder-registration form, which collects the bidder’s name/address, the name/address to appear on the tax-sale certificate, and a SSN or Federal I.D. plus a W-9 (per Marion County’s procedures; other counties use the same GUTS form template). (Marion 2025 procedures)
  • Deposit. Set per county. Marion County required a $2,500 deposit paid directly to the Treasurer (refunded by mail if no purchases). For the GUTS in-person counties the deposit amount is stated in each county’s “Information and Procedures” PDF. needs_verification: exact deposit figures for Boone / Brown / Clinton / LaGrange / Delaware (PDFs are image/glyph-encoded and did not yield clean text on retrieval).
  • Bidding method. Two formats appear: in-person live auctions (Boone, Delaware — fixed date/time at a county venue) and online-only sales (some counties). Bidding under Indiana law opens at the statutory minimum bid (delinquent taxes, penalties, special assessments, taxes due in the year of sale, and tax-sale costs) and is bid up; the property goes to the highest bidder. The amount above the minimum is the “overbid” / surplus. needs_verification: the exact GUTS online-bidding interface and increment rules per county.
  • Payment. Indiana tax sales are generally payment-due-immediately affairs (Marion County imposes a penalty for failure to pay the winning bid; specific penalty terms are county-set). Confirm the same-day payment requirement in the county procedures. needs_verification: payment-deadline and default-penalty specifics for each GUTS county.
  • What the buyer receives — a certificate, not a deed. Under Ind. Code 6-1.1-24-9, “immediately after a tax sale purchaser pays the bid … the county auditor shall deliver a certificate of sale to the purchaser.” The certificate is signed by the auditor, registered in the auditor’s office, and states the minimum bid, the redemption-expiration date (per IC 6-1.1-25-4), and the purchaser’s information; the purchaser’s lien “is superior to all liens against the real property which exist at the time the certificate is issued,” and the certificate is assignable. (Ind. Code 6-1.1-24-9)
  • Redemption / deed delivery. The property remains redeemable for the statutory period (generally one year under Ind. Code 6-1.1-25-4). To redeem, the owner pays 110% of the minimum bid if redeemed not more than six months after the sale, or 115% if redeemed more than six months after the sale, plus interest on the overbid amount and reimbursement of taxes the purchaser paid (Ind. Code 6-1.1-25-2). If the property is not redeemed, the certificate holder must petition the court for a tax deed (Ind. Code 6-1.1-25-4.6). (Ind. Code 6-1.1-25-2; 6-1.1-25-4; 6-1.1-25-4.6) See indiana and right-of-redemption for the full statutory treatment.

Practical notes

  • GUTS is administration software, not a marketplace. Unlike a national platform with one registration good across many counties, GUTS-run sales are per-county: each county’s registration form, deposit, venue, and rules are distinct. Plan registration county by county.
  • Document-driven. The single most authoritative artifact is the county-specific “Information and Procedures” PDF GUTS generates for that sale year. It controls; the GUTS marketing pages do not.
  • In-person vs. online varies by county. Boone and Delaware ran live, in-person auctions at county venues on fixed dates; other counties have run online-only. Do not assume a county’s format from a prior year — re-check each cycle.
  • Vendor turnover. Counties move between vendors (e.g., Marion County → GovEase). A county appearing in GUTS’s historical listings is not a guarantee GUTS runs its current sale.
  • Certificate-sale (“Commissioners’ Sale”) nuances. These are previously-unsold parcels the county now holds a certificate on; they can carry lower minimum bids and shorter redemption periods than the original tax sale — higher upside, compressed timeline, and often more title hair. Diligence accordingly. (GUTS definitions, above.)
  • Fees. GUTS does not publish a public bidder-side fee schedule; any buyer premium, certificate fee, or online-platform convenience fee is county- and year-specific. needs_verification.

▸ For Former Owners. If a property in one of these Indiana counties was sold at a GUTS-administered tax sale, the buyer holds a certificate, not yet a deed, and you generally have one year to redeem (Ind. Code 6-1.1-25-4) — and any amount the buyer paid above the minimum bid (the “overbid”) may be surplus owed to you if you do not redeem. Deadlines are short and statutory.

Sources

Official vendor / county sources retrieved 2026-06-02:

Governing primary law (Indiana Code, via official-code mirrors):

Disclaimer: This page is legal information, not legal advice, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Government Utilities Technology Service, Inc., GovEase, any Indiana county, or any other entity. Vendor relationships, fees, deposits, and procedures change every sale cycle. Verify all facts against the county’s own current notice and the Indiana Code, and consult a licensed attorney before bidding or filing a claim.

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