Washington · Law checked October 19, 2026

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

Behind on property taxes in Washington? 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 Washington? 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 Washington deadline

How Washington sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Redemption in Washington runs until the deed is issued — Until the close of business on the business day immediately before the sale — there is no redemption after the sale. (Exception: minors and legally incompetent persons may redeem within 3 years after the sale.) Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: All taxes, interest, penalties and foreclosure costs for which judgment was rendered, plus anything accruing after judgment.

Source: RCW 84.64.070

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: Partial payments are a statutory feature, and the treasurer postpones foreclosure while a qualifying down-payment keeps later payments current (§84.64.060). Foreclosure is also halted by a pending bankruptcy filing.

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): Yes — the senior/disabled deferral (RCW 84.38): owner 60+ (or 57+ surviving spouse), or retired for disability, income-capped; the state pays the taxes as a lien repaid with interest on sale or death.

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the County treasurer.

Your claim window: 3 years from the sale. The right belongs to the person who owned the property on the date the certificate of delinquency was issued — and no one else may take it, even by a later assignment. Claim it from the county treasurer with proof you held title on that date. Statute-verified

If nobody claims it: Unclaimed surplus after 3 years is paid into the county current expense fund — it does not go to state unclaimed property.

Finder-fee protection: Washington's shield is structural: the surplus right cannot be transferred or assigned away from the certificate-date owner at all (RCW 84.64.080(10)). A recovery company's contract cannot lawfully take it.

Source: RCW 84.64.080(10)

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'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