Delaware · Law checked October 19, 2026

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

Behind on property taxes in Delaware? 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 Delaware? 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 Delaware deadline

How Delaware sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Your window: 60 days from the day the Superior Court approves (confirms) the sale — confirmation usually follows the sale itself by a few weeks, so treat the computed date as the outer edge and act earlier, counted from court confirmation of the sale. Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: The purchase price + 15% on top of it + all costs of the case.

Source: 9 Del. C. §8729; §8758

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: No state payment-plan right found — county discretion.

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): None found.

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the Superior Court / Sheriff.

Your claim window: No fixed statutory claim window was found: on a monition sale the Superior Court disposes of proceeds above the judgment 'as it shall deem just,' and the residue is paid to the owner or deposited for the owner. Claim in writing to the court immediately after any sale. Being double-checked

If nobody claims it: No escheat period was found in the provisions read.

Source: 9 Del. C. ch. 87, subchs. II–IV

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 sheriff (Superior Court monition sale)'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