The two cases

The Supreme Court gave owners a right. A second case set its size.

Tyler v. Hennepin County (2023) held, 9–0, that a county keeping more than the tax debt from a sale takes private property without compensation. Pung v. Isabella County (June 23, 2026) answered the next question — how much: for a fairly conducted sale, the sale price minus the debt. Not the home's value. Both halves matter.

Tyler: the right

Geraldine Tyler owed about $15,000 in taxes, interest, and penalties on a Minneapolis condo. Hennepin County sold it for $40,000 and kept the $25,000 difference. The Supreme Court held that keeping more than the debt was a taking under the Fifth Amendment — a taxpayer must render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, the Chief Justice wrote, but no more. Tyler did not create a federal claim form: each state's law still sets the office, the form, and the deadline for claiming the extra money. Miss your state's deadline and Tyler does not save the claim.

Pung: the measure

In Pung, the county foreclosed over a small disputed tax debt and sold the property at auction for far less than the family said it was worth. The Court held the just-compensation measure is the surplus the sale actually produced — the proceeds above the debt — not a court's later estimate of fair market value, at least where the sale itself was fairly conducted. The practical meaning for owners: the surplus is the sale price minus the debt. If the county sold cheap, the claim is small even if the home was 'worth' much more. Anyone promising to recover your home's full value is describing litigation Pung has now narrowed, not a claim.

What this means at your kitchen table: claim the surplus your sale actually produced, from the office your state names, before your state's deadline — that is the right Tyler won, at the size Pung set. How the claim works · Count your deadline

The lookback wave

Tyler also unsettled sales from before 2023, and states have answered unevenly: Illinois built a Surplus Equity Fund for deeds recorded July 2024–July 2026 with claims due by July 2028; New York's Title 6 reaches sales on or after May 25, 2023; Minnesota funded a $109M settlement for pre-2024 forfeitures; Oregon counties settled class actions with claim deadlines of their own; Michigan's pre-2020 owners ride on the Rafaeli case law. Each state page flags its own lookback where one exists. The Illinois fund, in detail

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.