Pennsylvania · Law checked October 19, 2026

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

Behind on property taxes in Pennsylvania? 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 Pennsylvania? 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 Pennsylvania deadline

How Pennsylvania sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

There is no redemption after the sale in Pennsylvania. Under the Real Estate Tax Sale Law there is NO redemption after the tax sale (72 P.S. §5860.501). Your only rights are before it: pay the delinquent amount — or sign a stay agreement — before the actual sale, or catch a court-ordered stay Your protection is everything that happens BEFORE the sale date — the doors below — and, after a sale, the surplus claim. Statute-verified

Source: 72 P.S. §§5860.501, 5860.603

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: Yes — the §5860.603 stay agreement (25% down, remainder in up to 3 installments within 1 year) if signed before the sale. Separately, owner-occupants at least 2 years delinquent have a pre-sale notice-and-payment right under §5860.612.2.

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): None found. (Senior homestead/farmstead exclusions reduce the tax; they do not defer it.)

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the County Tax Claim Bureau.

Your claim window: When the sale brings more than the upset price, the bureau distributes the balance in this order: sale costs, tax liens, municipal claims, mortgage and judgment liens, and then the owner. There is NO owner-claim deadline in the RETSL text read — do not let anyone tell you a county '3-year rule' is the law for your county without checking that county's practice. Being double-checked

If nobody claims it: After distribution, remaining money is treated as unclaimed property under the Disposition of Abandoned and Unclaimed Property Act (the State Treasurer's 3-year dormancy practice is where the '3-year' talk comes from — a county practice, not a RETSL deadline).

Finder-fee protection: State practice note (county-sourced): paid finders must be certified by the Pennsylvania Treasury to help owners claim unclaimed funds. Ask for the certification before paying anyone.

Source: 72 P.S. §5860.205

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 Claim Bureau'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