Ohio · Law checked October 19, 2026

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

Behind on property taxes in Ohio? 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 Ohio? 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 Ohio deadline

How Ohio sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Redemption in Ohio runs until the deed is issued — Any time before the court confirms the sale — there is no fixed statewide month count. On confirmation, the equity of redemption ends. (Certificate parcels likewise redeem until confirmation or the foreclosure decree.) Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: All taxes, assessments, charges, penalties, interest and costs. In a private certificate foreclosure, interest runs at 18% per year on the certificate purchase price (§5721.37/5721.38).

Source: R.C. §§5721.19, 5721.38

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: Yes — a delinquent tax contract with the county treasurer (R.C. §323.31): owner-occupants of residential or farm property get at least one opportunity to enter one; installments can run up to 5 years, and not less than 2 years if the owner-occupant asks.

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): None found as a deferral. (The senior/disabled homestead exemption reduces the tax; it does not defer it.)

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the Clerk of the court that issued the writ, then the county treasurer.

Your claim window: A two-stage clock (R.C. §5721.20): the sale officer must deliver the balance to the clerk within 45 days after the sale is confirmed, and the clerk notifies the owner. Residue still unclaimed 90 days after the clerk's final notice moves to the county treasury, held in the owner's name — and payable on the owner's demand within 3 years of the treasurer receiving it. Statute-verified

If nobody claims it: If the owner does not demand the money within the 3 years, it is forfeited to the delinquent tax and assessment collection fund (or the county land bank's fund). Note: §5721.20 does not cover no-sale transfers to land banks under the alternative redemption period (§323.78), except as that section provides.

Source: R.C. §5721.20 (eff. Apr. 3, 2025)

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 / county prosecuting attorney (foreclosure); clerk of court (money)'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