The omission of any officer to give the notice of execution sale required or the taking down or defacing of any such notice shall not affect the validity of any sale made to a purchaser in good faith, without notice of any such omission or offense.
815.36.Execution sale, want of notice, when immaterial.
Ch. 815: Executions · Last amended 1975 · Last verified July 15, 2026
In one sentenceSection 815.36 protects a good-faith purchaser at an execution sale by keeping the sale valid even if the officer omitted the required notice, or someone took down or defaced it, as long as the purchaser had no notice of that omission or offense.
Full Text of Section 815.36
Plain-English Summary
Section 815.36 addresses what happens to an execution sale itself when the notice process behind it went wrong. The omission of any officer to give the required notice of an execution sale, or the taking down or defacing of any such notice, does not affect the validity of a sale made to a purchaser in good faith, without notice of any such omission or offense.
That protection runs specifically to the purchaser, not to the officer or to whoever removed the notice. Sections 815.34 and 815.35 already impose damages on those parties for the underlying notice failure; this section keeps that separate remedy from undoing a sale that an innocent buyer relied on.
Frequently Asked Questions
If the officer forgot to post the required notice, is the resulting sale automatically void?
Not as to a purchaser who bought in good faith without notice of the omission — the sale’s validity is not affected for that purchaser.
Does it matter if someone tore down the notice before the sale?
Not for a good-faith purchaser without notice of that offense; the sale remains valid as to that purchaser.
What protects a buyer at an execution sale from a defect in the notice process?
The buyer’s good faith and lack of notice of the omission or offense.
If a purchaser knew notice was never given, does this protection still apply?
No. The protection is limited to a purchaser who bought “in good faith, without notice of any such omission or offense.”
How does this section relate to the penalties in sections 815.34 and 815.35?
Those sections make the officer, or the person who defaced the notice, liable in damages. This section separately preserves the validity of the sale for an innocent purchaser, so the remedy for the notice defect runs against the wrongdoer rather than against the sale.
Amendment History
History: Sup. Ct. Order, 67 Wis. 2d 585, 761 (1975); Stats. 1975 s. 815.36.
Source & verification. Section text and official notes are
reproduced verbatim from the Wisconsin Statutes, published by the
Wisconsin Legislature (Legislative Reference Bureau). Last verified July 15, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: wisconsin good faith purchaser execution salenotice defect doesn’t void execution sale wisconsinwis stat 815.36validity of sheriff sale without notice wisconsininnocent purchaser protection execution sale wisconsin