When the county keeps what you're owed
When a home is sold for unpaid property taxes and the sale brings in more than was owed, the difference belongs to the former owner. The Supreme Court said so plainly in 2023, in Tyler v. Hennepin County: a government can take what it's owed, but not more.
What happens when the owner doesn't claim that money in time depends on the state. In some, it goes to the state's unclaimed property program, where the owner can still recover it years later. In others, the county or the local taxing bodies keep it for good. And several of those same states make it unusually hard for anyone to help owners find the money before the deadline passes.
We should say up front: Bow and Bounty helps people recover surplus funds, so we have a stake in this. Everything below comes from the states' own statutes, linked so you can check it.
Four states where the money doesn't wait
- Washington: if no claim reaches the county treasurer within three years of a tax sale, the money goes into the county's current expense fund, "which extinguishes all claims by any owner to the excess funds" (RCW 84.64.080).
- Oklahoma: owners have one year from the county resale. After that, "it shall be credited to the county resale property fund." The window was two years from 1965 until 2009, when the legislature cut it in half (Attorney General Opinion 2025-10).
- Nevada: before anyone can claim, the county takes the first $300 of the excess and 10% of the next $10,000, and keeps the interest on the rest. Whatever is unclaimed a year after the deed is recorded goes to the county and "must not thereafter be refunded" (NRS 361.610).
- Texas: owners must petition the court within two years of the sale. After that, the clerk pays the money to the taxing units that took part in the sale (Tax Code § 34.03).
Compare Florida, where surplus nobody claims within the claim period is sent to the state's unclaimed property program, and the former owner can still claim it there (Fla. Stat. § 197.582).
And the rules on who may help
The same states limit the people who find owners and help them claim:
- Washington's public records law bars agencies from providing lists of individuals for commercial purposes (RCW 42.56.070). Counties such as Snohomish attach that condition to their excess-funds lists, even when the list sits openly on the county website.
- Texas goes furthest: "A person who is not an attorney may not charge a fee to obtain excess proceeds for an owner," and an attorney's fee is capped at 25% or $1,000, whichever is less (Tax Code § 34.04).
- Oklahoma voids any assignment of the right to the excess made once the resale has begun.
Some of these limits answer real problems. People have bought claims from owners for a fraction of what they were worth, and published lists of who is owed money can attract fraud. Rules against that are reasonable.
The conflict
But look at who benefits when nobody helps. When an owner never hears about the money, the county or the local taxing bodies keep it. The government holds the funds, controls the list that would let someone tell the owner, sets the rules for who may help, and receives whatever goes unclaimed.
Official notice doesn't close that gap. The usual notice is a letter to the address on record, which is often the very house that was just sold. People who lose a home move. The Supreme Court recognized the problem in Jones v. Flowers (2006): when the government knows its mailed notice of a tax sale didn't arrive, it must take further reasonable steps.
Fairer fixes
None of this needs a choice between protecting owners and letting them be found. Each of these keeps the protections and closes the gap:
- Send unclaimed surplus to state unclaimed property, not the county. The owner keeps the right to claim, and the government loses its stake in silence. Oklahoma's SB 313 proposed exactly this in 2025; it was sent to committee and hasn't moved since.
- Cap fees and require written agreements, instead of banning paid help. Washington caps fees for recovering mortgage foreclosure surplus at 5%, and Nevada caps fees for tax sale excess at 10% with a signed written agreement. Owners are protected, and someone still has a reason to find them.
- Require more than one letter before a county keeps the money: a second notice, a search for a current address, a published list.
- Publish the lists openly. Many Florida clerks do, and it means owners, their families and legal aid groups can look for themselves.
If you're owed money
You never need to pay anyone to claim surplus funds. You can do it yourself, and we've written free, step-by-step guides with every county's contact details for Washington, Oklahoma, Nevada and Texas. If your deadline is close, start today.