Georgia · Law checked October 19, 2026

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

Behind on property taxes in Georgia? 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 Georgia? 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 Georgia deadline

How Georgia sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Your window: 12 months from the tax sale — and the right does not die automatically at month 12: it continues until the buyer bars it by giving barment notice (O.C.G.A. §§48-4-45/46), which takes additional time. Treat 12 months as your deadline; anything after is borrowed time, counted from the sale date. Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: The amount paid at the sale + later taxes and assessments the buyer paid + a premium of 20% for the first year (or part of it) and 10% for each additional year.

Source: O.C.G.A. §48-4-40; §48-4-42

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: No state payment-plan right found — arrangements are at the tax commissioner's discretion (some counties bill in two installments by local practice).

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): Yes — deferral for homestead owners 62+ with gross household income at or under $15,000 (O.C.G.A. §48-5-72): defer part or all of the tax; the deferred amount plus interest is a lien, due on change of ownership or use.

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the County tax commissioner (or Superior Court, if the commissioner interpleads the funds).

Your claim window: The tax-deed statute states no claim deadline: the selling officer must mail you notice of the excess funds within 30 days after the sale. County practice holds the funds claimable for years — claim in writing as early as you can. Statute-verified

If nobody claims it: After 5 years unclaimed, county practice transfers the funds to the Georgia Department of Revenue's unclaimed-property division; after transfer, release requires a court order from the county of sale.

Source: O.C.G.A. §48-4-5

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 commissioner'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