Massachusetts · Law checked October 19, 2026

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

Behind on property taxes in Massachusetts? 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 Massachusetts? 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 Massachusetts deadline

How Massachusetts sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Redemption in Massachusetts runs until the deed is issued — Any time before a foreclosure petition is filed in Land Court — and the petition cannot be filed until 12 months after the sale or taking (raised from 6 months effective November 1, 2024). Even after a petition is filed, the Land Court may allow redemption on terms Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: The tax title account: the original tax + interest at 16% per year + every charge lawfully added. Installment payments toward redemption are permitted (§62).

Source: G.L. c. 60, §§62, 65

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: Yes — municipal tax title payment agreements under §62A, and installment redemption under §62 (the treasurer may hold off foreclosure for up to 2 years while installments are paid).

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): Elderly tax deferral exists under G.L. c. 59, §5(41A) where adopted locally — terms not verified from statute text in this research.

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the The judgment holder (the municipality, or the buyer of the tax receivables).

Your claim window: Under the 2024 excess-equity law (§64A): if the property is sold — or kept and appraised — the excess equity above the tax title debt is held for the former owner and interested parties. Unclaimed excess equity is disposed of under the unclaimed-property law (c. 200A) after 19 months; a court dispute over the accounting must be filed within 12 months of the notice of the itemized accounting. Statute-verified

If nobody claims it: After 19 months unclaimed, excess equity is disposed of under G.L. c. 200A (State Treasurer, unclaimed property).

Finder-fee protection: Summaries of the 2024 Act report a 3% cap on fees charged by home-equity protection companies and notice duties toward prior owners — reported by the Division of Local Services; verify the current text before quoting it.

Source: G.L. c. 60, §64A

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 Municipal tax collector (sale/taking); municipal treasurer (redemption)'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