Alabama · Law checked October 19, 2026

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

Behind on property taxes in Alabama? 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 Alabama? 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 Alabama deadline

How Alabama sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Your window: 3 years from the sale (statutory redemption), with a further court redemption possible while you remain in possession, counted from the sale date. Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: The purchase price + 12% per year interest + later taxes, insurance and preservation costs the buyer paid.

Source: Ala. Code §40-10-120; §40-10-122

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: No installment plan for delinquent taxes — the collector must accept partial payments of at least one quarter of the tax due, but a partial payment does not postpone the sale.

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): No deferral found. Instead, owners 65+ with taxable income under $12,000, and totally disabled owners, can claim a full homestead tax exemption — an exemption, not a pause.

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the County commission / county treasury.

Your claim window: Excess proceeds above the tax debt are held for the owner. The standard claim window runs 3 years from the sale; owners who did not redeem may still pursue excess for up to 10 years after the sale with proof through the court process. Statute-verified

If nobody claims it: Unrequested excess goes to the county general fund at 3 years; after 10 years with no proof filed, the excess becomes county property.

Source: Ala. Code §40-10-28

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 collector'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