Oregon · Law checked October 19, 2026

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

Behind on property taxes in Oregon? 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 Oregon? 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 Oregon deadline

How Oregon sells

The machine, in four lines

A dated second chance in Oregon: At least seven Oregon counties have settled pre-reform Tyler class actions (Multnomah County in 2025; Baker, Columbia, Jackson, Marion, Washington and Yamhill announced in 2026, with a November 30, 2026 claim deadline reported for the announced group). If your property was foreclosed before the 2025 law, look for your county's settlement notice before assuming the money is gone.

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Your window: 2 years after the foreclosure judgment date — during which the county takes and holds the property. After the 2 years the county issues a deed to itself and your redemption ends, counted from the foreclosure judgment date. Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: All taxes shown in the judgment + interest accruing from the judgment date + redemption costs. (A precise rate was not pinned in the sources read — the judgment states the figure.)

Source: ORS 312.120; 312.200

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: Installments for delinquent taxes exist under ORS 311.672 (active installments defer foreclosure) — no county authority was read for this cell; confirm with your county.

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): Yes — the Senior and Disabled Citizen Property Tax Deferral (ORS 311.666–311.701): taxes are paid by the state and become a lien, repaid with interest on sale, death, or leaving the home.

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the State Treasurer (unclaimed property) — the county delivers unclaimed surplus there.

Your claim window: Under Oregon's 2025 law (ORS 312.540–312.560): within 60 days after the county disposes of the property, it determines the surplus (sale price minus foreclosure judgment amounts), then within 30 days delivers the claim record to prior owners and the money to the State Treasurer. You claim from the Treasurer under unclaimed-property law. Assignments of your surplus to a finder are VOID (protective exceptions only). Statute-verified

If nobody claims it: Surplus is treated as unclaimed property — it stays claimable under the unclaimed-property law rather than being forfeited to the county.

Finder-fee protection: Stronger than a cap: an agreement that gives a recovery company your surplus proceeds is void unless it protects a bona fide lien or was given for estate-planning purposes (ORS 312.540–312.560).

Source: ORS 312.540–312.560 (2025 c. 475)

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 (foreclosure); county board (disposal)'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