Indiana · Law checked October 19, 2026

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

Behind on property taxes in Indiana? 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 Indiana? 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 Indiana deadline

How Indiana sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Your window: 1 year from the sale (120 days for sales to a purchasing agency, sales of county-held certificates, and certain vacant or abandoned parcels), counted from the sale date. Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: 110% of the minimum bid if you redeem within 6 months, 115% if between 6 and 12 months + 5% per year on any overbid + later taxes the buyer paid at 5% per year + costs and fees.

Source: Ind. Code §6-1.1-25-4; §6-1.1-25-2

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: No general pre-sale plan right found. One county-held exception: after an unsold (county-held) sale, the treasurer may agree a payment arrangement and extend redemption up to 1 year from the agreement (§6-1.1-25-4(k)).

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

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the County auditor — Tax Sale Surplus Fund.

Your claim window: 3 years after the date of the sale. A court may direct payment from the fund only within the 3 years. Statute-verified

If nobody claims it: After 3 years unclaimed, the auditor transfers the money to the county general fund.

Finder-fee protection: Indiana caps what anyone you hire may take from the surplus fund: at most 10% of the amount collected (unless the amount is $50 or less), and the agreement must be written, signed, and state the fund amount and your net share (Ind. Code §6-1.1-24-7.5).

Source: Ind. Code §6-1.1-24-7; §6-1.1-24-7.5

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 auditor (sale); county treasurer (redemption payments)'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