Kentucky · Law checked October 19, 2026

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

Behind on property taxes in Kentucky? 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 Kentucky? 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 Kentucky deadline

How Kentucky sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Redemption in Kentucky runs until the deed is issued — No fixed calendar date: you may pay off a certificate at any time before a foreclosure judgment and sale. A buyer cannot even sue until 1 year after the taxes became delinquent (and must sue within 11 years) — so the practical clock is the court case, not a date. Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: The certificate amount + interest at 12% per year + the purchaser's authorized fees and costs (including administrative and litigation fees under KRS 134.452).

Source: KRS 134.490; KRS 134.546

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: Yes, a real one: a registered third-party purchaser must, on your written request, give you a monthly installment payment plan (processing fee capped at $8/month) (KRS 134.490(5)). Payment plans may also be offered before sale by the county attorney or the Department of Revenue.

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): None found.

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the Circuit court / Master Commissioner (foreclosure sale).

Your claim window: No tax-specific claim window was found: surplus exists only when the court foreclosure sale brings more than the debt, and it is then held under the court's general foreclosure distribution rules. A separate protection: if the foreclosure sale brings less than two-thirds of the appraised value, a redemption right applies to that sale itself (KRS 426.530). Ask the Master Commissioner, in writing, whether your sale left a balance. Being double-checked

If nobody claims it: Not pinned in the tax statutes read.

Source: KRS 134.546; KRS 426.530

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 clerk (certificates); circuit court / Master Commissioner (foreclosure sale)'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