Virginia · Law checked October 19, 2026

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

Behind on property taxes in Virginia? 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 Virginia? 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 Virginia deadline

How Virginia sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Redemption in Virginia runs until the deed is issued — Until the sale: owner, lienholders and other interest-holders may redeem by paying everything owed — and a partial payment does NOT redeem. There is no post-sale redemption in Virginia Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: All taxes, penalties, interest and costs due. (Rate specifics were not pinned in the sources read — the treasurer's or court's statement controls.)

Source: Va. Code §58.1-3965(B)

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: Yes — the treasurer may enter a written installment agreement: delinquent taxes, interest and penalties paid over up to 24 months, with new liens stayed while you comply (§58.1-3965(C)).

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): Local-option only: localities may defer real estate taxes for elderly or disabled owners under local ordinance (§58.1-3295) — no statewide program.

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the Clerk of circuit court (judicial sales) / county or city treasurer escrow (nonjudicial sales).

Your claim window: Judicial sales: surplus paid to the court is held for those entitled; after 2 years from the confirmation of the sale it is paid into the state treasury for the Literary Fund if unclaimed. Nonjudicial sales: surplus sits in a treasurer's escrow account for at least 3 years before being paid over to the locality. Statute-verified

If nobody claims it: Judicial: unclaimed after 2 years from confirmation, surplus goes to the state treasury (Literary Fund). Nonjudicial: to the locality after at least 3 years in escrow.

Source: Va. Code §§58.1-3967, 58.1-3975(K)

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 Circuit court (judicial) / county or city treasurer (nonjudicial)'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