Tennessee · Law checked October 19, 2026

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

Behind on property taxes in Tennessee? 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 Tennessee? 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 Tennessee deadline

How Tennessee sells

The machine, in four lines

Door one: getting the house back (redemption)

Your window: 1 year from the court's confirmation of the sale — shorter if the property had been delinquent for years: 180 days if it was delinquent more than 5 but less than 8 years, 90 days if 8+ years, and 30 days for vacant or abandoned property, counted from confirmation of the sale. Statute-verified

What it costs to redeem: The purchase price + 12% per year on the whole purchase price from the sale date (the current statute text; older materials quoting 10% are out of date) + taxes, penalty and interest accruing after the sale. Get the court's exact figure before paying.

Source: Tenn. Code §67-5-2701

Before any sale: your quieter doors

Payment plans: No statewide delinquent-tax installment right was verified in the sources read.

Deferrals (senior / veteran / disability): Yes — the Tax Deferral for the Elderly and Disabled (Tenn. Code §67-5-702): owner 65+ or disabled (or the surviving spouse, 55+), income-capped, deferred taxes become a lien due with interest on sale or death.

Door two: the extra money (surplus)

Who holds the money: the Clerk & Master of the chancery court.

Your claim window: Proceeds are paid out in this order: sale costs, then the taxes and charges, then other liens by priority, then the owner. Claim by motion in the tax case (Tenn. Code §67-5-2702) — the safe rule is to file while the funds are still with the Clerk & Master, because once they are forwarded to the state's unclaimed property program the route changes. Statute-verified

If nobody claims it: Unclaimed funds are ultimately forwarded to the state Division of Unclaimed Property (after 1 year from confirmation for litigated proceeds under §29-22-115, by court direction) — claimable there.

Source: Tenn. Code §67-5-2702

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 trustee (collection); Clerk & Master of the chancery court (sale and proceeds)'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