Texas · Law checked October 19, 2026

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

Behind on property taxes in Texas? 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 Texas? 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 Texas deadline

How Texas sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Your window: 180 days for most property — 2 years if the property was your homestead or agricultural land, counted from the date the deed is recorded. Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: Everything the buyer paid (bid price, recording fees, later taxes, penalties, interest) PLUS a flat premium: 25% of that total in year one, 50% in year two for homestead/agricultural. For other property the premium is capped at 25%. The premium is the trap — it is not prorated.

Source: Tex. Tax Code §34.21

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: Homestead installment agreements (§31.031): additional-penalty relief if you pay 25–50% at signing and the balance within 24 months. In counties over 1.5 million people, the collector must offer installment payment for delinquent taxes on residence homesteads (§31.032).

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): 65+ / disabled homeowners may defer collection while they live in the home (§33.06) — interest at 5% per year.

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the District clerk (registry of the court).

Your claim window: 2 years from the sale date: you must file your petition with the court BEFORE the second anniversary of the sale. The court pays court costs, sale costs, and liens first, then you. Unclaimed excess is then paid out to the taxing units — it does not wait in unclaimed property. Statute-verified

If nobody claims it: At 2 years, excess proceeds are distributed to the taxing units under §34.03 — the owner's claim ends.

Finder-fee protection: Texas's shield is the strictest in the country: a NON-ATTORNEY may not charge ANY fee to obtain excess proceeds (§34.04(i)). An attorney's fee is capped at the lesser of 25% of the proceeds or $1,000, and any assignee you signed with can be paid no more than 125% of what they paid you (§34.04(j)). A non-lawyer 'recovery specialist' charging you in Texas is breaking the law.

Source: Tex. Tax Code §§34.03, 34.04

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 tax assessor-collector / sheriff or constable sale officer'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