Arizona · Law checked October 19, 2026

Arizona tax sale: your deadline, your office, your money

Behind on property taxes in Arizona? Your house can be sold at a tax sale — here's how much time you have to stop it. Your house was sold at a tax sale in Arizona? The extra money from the sale may be yours to claim — and there's a deadline. Both answers are on this page, from the statute.

Count my Arizona deadline

How Arizona sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Your window: 3 years from the certificate sale — and redemption actually stays open after year 3 until a court enters a judgment ending it or a treasurer's deed is delivered, counted from the certificate sale date. Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: The certificate amount + interest at the rate bid at the sale (up to 16% per year) + later taxes the buyer paid + costs and fees.

Source: A.R.S. §42-18152; §42-18151

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: No delinquent-tax installment plan found. The treasurer must accept partial payments of current taxes (at least 10% of the installment and at least $10) before delinquency.

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): A residential deferral exists (A.R.S. §§42-17301–17313) — in the statute summary it is narrow: age 70+, main home, years of Arizona residence, and a low taxable-income ceiling; the claim is filed yearly.

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the Superior Court (inside the foreclosure case).

Your claim window: A lien sale itself produces no surplus. Under Arizona's 2024 system, when the buyer forecloses, the owner may ask the court to order an excess-proceeds sale of the property; if the sale brings more than is owed, the court distributes it within 90 days — lienholders first, the rest to the former owner. Statute-verified

If nobody claims it: Money still unclaimed after the court's distribution is handled under Arizona's unclaimed-property law.

Source: A.R.S. §42-18204; §42-18236

The county figure rule. This page gives you the law — the window, the formula, the office. The exact payoff or surplus figure lives in the County treasurer's books and changes as interest runs. Ask that office for the figure, in writing, and keep the letter.

Included in the $49 TaxSaleDecoded Kit

  • The surplus claim pack: how to prove the house was yours (deed records, address history, ID), the claim-form path in your state, and what to do when the county says it has no record of your money
  • The redemption playbook: your state's window and cost formula worked step by step, who to pay, how to prove you paid, and the traps in the payoff figure (added fees and interest)
  • The heirs page: the house was a parent's — what changes, which papers prove you are an heir, and the point where it stops being simple
  • The scam shield: how surplus-recovery companies work, the fee caps your state sets for them, and the assignment papers you should never sign
  • The lookback module: what Tyler won, what Pung limited (the extra money is the sale price minus the debt — not your home's value), and the dated state lookbacks, including Illinois claims that die in July 2028

Get the TaxSaleDecoded Kit — $49

One payment of $49. No subscription. The kit is a web page you can return to and print — the claim pack, the redemption playbook, the heirs page, and the scam shield.

All 50 states · The surplus, explained · Redemption, explained