Property Tax Lien Sales in New York: NYC, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester

Unpaid property taxes are a lien on the property everywhere in New York, and that lien comes ahead of any mortgage. What happens next depends on where the property is:

  • New York City sells the debt to a trust the City creates.
  • Nassau County auctions tax liens to private bidders every February.
  • Suffolk County sells the lien to itself and takes a tax deed (ownership) if no one pays it off.
  • Westchester: each town and city collects its own taxes, most often through in rem foreclosure, a court case against the property itself.

For a buyer, the result is the same everywhere: the title company’s tax search finds the lien, and it’s paid from the seller’s proceeds at closing. What differs is who is owed the money once a lien is sold.

How unpaid taxes become a lien

County taxes are a lien from January 1 of the tax year until paid (state tax law). In New York City, taxes, assessments, sewer rents and water rents stay a lien until paid and are “preferred in payment to all other charges” (city law). A mortgage foreclosure doesn’t wipe them out; see which liens survive a foreclosure sale.

A lien sale is a separate step. The government sells its right to collect the debt, with interest; the property itself is not sold. If the debt stays unpaid, the lien holder can foreclose or, in Nassau and Suffolk, get a tax deed. That is when an owner loses the property.

Where Who collects How Owner’s time to pay
NYC Dept. of Finance Sale to lien trust Foreclosure from 1 year after sale
Nassau County Treasurer Annual auction About 2 years after sale
Suffolk County Comptroller Lien sold to county 36 months (1-3 family)
Westchester towns Town receiver In rem foreclosure 2 years from lien date
Westchester cities City Own charter or law Varies by city

New York City: the tax lien sale

Where things stand in 2026

A 2024 city law renewed the City’s power to sell liens, with reforms, and only through December 31, 2028 (2024 city law). The most recent sale was on June 3, 2025 (DOF, Lien Sales).

There has been no sale in 2026. The New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO) reported in April 2026 that the administration “will not hold a lien sale in 2026” (IBO, April 2026). On January 29, 2026, the City Council passed three laws over the Mayor’s veto that change what comes next:

  • One creates a New York City land bank that can enforce tax liens. It exists only after the state Urban Development Corporation approves the law (city law).
  • One keeps sales allowed through December 31, 2028. After that, the only sale allowed is a negotiated sale to the land bank (city law).
  • One requires buyers of City liens to make best efforts to transfer their liens to the land bank (city law).

IBO describes 2029 as the land bank’s first possible lien sale. As of February 2026 it still needed state approval (The Real Deal, Feb. 2026), and as of October 31, 2026, DOF still lists the June 2025 sale as the latest.

The pause doesn’t erase earlier sales. Liens already sold can still be enforced by the trusts that hold them.

What gets sold, and when a property qualifies

The sale covers unpaid property taxes and water and sewer charges, with interest and fees. It also covers certain charges from the City’s housing agency, HPD: Emergency Repair and Alternative Enforcement charges (NYC 311, Tax Lien Sale). DOF sets minimum amounts and ages of debt by property type:

Property type Property tax Water and sewer
1-family $5,000, 3 years Not sold alone
2-3 family $5,000, 3 years $3,000, 1 year
Condo or co-op building $5,000, 3 years $1,000, 1 year
HDFC rental $5,000, 2 years $5,000, 2 years
All other $1,000, 1 year $1,000, 1 year

Source: DOF, Lien Sales. “Not sold alone” means a one-family house that owes only water and sewer charges, and no property tax, can’t have a lien sold. The HPD repair charges qualify at $1,000 and one year, except on owner-occupied one- to three-family homes, where they are not sold.

Some properties are left out of the sale (IBO):

  • one- to three-family homes where the owner lives there and gets the Senior Citizen Homeowners’ Exemption, Disabled Homeowners’ Exemption, a veterans exemption or certain other exemptions
  • certain charitable, nonprofit and HDFC (limited-equity co-op) properties
  • owners with a pending good-faith exemption application
  • legally distressed multifamily buildings

Paying in full, or signing a payment agreement, before the sale also takes the property out (DOF).

Notices, the lien trust and foreclosure

DOF mails notices 90, 60, 30 and 10 days before a sale. Liens are sold to a Tax Lien Trust, which the City creates for each sale. A third-party financial institution oversees it, and private servicers collect the debts. Unpaid liens are later folded into older trusts, such as the NYCTL 1998-2 Trust (IBO).

Once sold, the debt grows (DOF):

  • a 5% surcharge on the full lien amount
  • about $300 in administrative costs
  • interest compounded daily at 6%, 9% or 16%, depending on assessed value

The lien holder can start a court foreclosure one year after the sale. It can start sooner if a twice-yearly interest payment is more than 30 days late, or current charges go unpaid for six months. For sales under the 2026 changes, an owner-occupied one- to three-family home (tax class 1) can’t be foreclosed until at least one year after the sale. Even then, the lien must equal or exceed 15% of market value or $70,000, whichever is less (city law).

A foreclosure ends in a public auction under the state’s foreclosure process. The sale money pays the debt first, and anything left goes to the former owner (IBO).

How DEP water and sewer debts are billed and settled at closing is covered in water and sewer charges at closing.

Nassau County: the yearly tax lien sale

In Nassau, the town tax receivers in Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay collect current taxes. Unpaid school taxes become payable to the Nassau County Treasurer on June 1, and unpaid general taxes on September 1 (Nassau County Treasurer, Delinquent Taxes). Glen Cove handles its own late school taxes. In Long Beach, the Treasurer collects only the county part of the general tax, plus school taxes. Bill dates are in the Long Island tax grievance guide.

Each February, the Treasurer auctions liens for the prior year’s unpaid taxes. The sale for 2026 taxes is set for February 16, 2027. The last day to pay before the sale is February 10, 2027 (Annual Tax Lien Sale).

Bidders compete on the interest rate. The maximum is 10% of the purchase price for each six-month period through the 24th month. Where a hardship extension applies, it’s 5% per six months for months 25 to 36 (Notice to Tax Lien Purchasers). The County keeps a “Differential Lien” for the gap between the maximum rate and the winning bid. That amount is part of every payoff.

Paying off a sold lien (redemption). The owner can redeem by paying the Treasurer any time before a tax deed issues or a foreclosure starts. For liens from the 2024 sale, the Treasurer said neither could happen before February 21, 2026, about two years after the sale.

Before taking a deed or suing, the lien holder must serve a notice to redeem with a tentative deed or foreclosure date at least 90 days away. Owners of homes in tax classes 1 and 2 must be served in person. Some vacant residential lots can only be foreclosed, not deeded (Nassau County, Notice to Redeem instructions, May 2025).

Once a foreclosure case is filed, the Treasurer can’t accept payment without a court order. The payoff can then include the lien holder’s costs and lawyer fees (2021 appeals court decision).

Notice mistakes can undo a County tax deed. In 2022 an appeals court voided a deed because the County couldn’t show it mailed the required notice of the lien sale. The court required strict compliance with that notice rule (2022 appeals court decision).

Suffolk County: lien to the county, then a tax deed

Taxes unpaid after May 31 become payable to the Suffolk County Comptroller. They carry a 5% penalty and interest of 1% per month from February 1 (Suffolk County Comptroller, Taxpayer FAQs). The lien is then sold to the County, usually in December. So unlike Nassau, the County itself is the lien buyer.

Under Suffolk’s tax law, the County can outbid everyone else and is treated as the buyer of any parcel no one else buys (Suffolk tax law). The owner has time to pay it off (redemption period):

  • 36 months from the sale for a one-, two- or three-family home
  • 12 months for vacant or non-residential property

The County must publish notice at least three months before that time runs out (notice rule). Interest on the payoff builds in six-month steps.

If no one pays, the County takes a tax deed. Someone with a legal interest can still apply to the County’s Redemption Unit within six months after the deed is recorded. The application needs a fee and a title search, and the debt must be paid in full (Suffolk County Redemption Unit).

Property not redeemed is eventually sold at the County’s public auction, run by the Department of Economic Development and Planning. The next online auction is planned for spring 2027 (Suffolk County Real Property Auction).

Westchester County: towns and cities collect their own taxes

Westchester County doesn’t collect property taxes or sell tax liens; the towns, cities and villages do (Westchester County Tax Commission). Each city and town collects the County’s share, guarantees it in full under the County Charter, and goes after late payers itself (Westchester County Finance, Taxes and Liens). Who collects in each place is covered in Westchester municipal searches.

Towns. A town using the state’s standard process forecloses in rem. The owner has two years after the lien date to pay (state tax law). A town can stretch that to three or four years for homes or farms by passing a local law (state tax law). The Town of Cortlandt, for example, turns the prior year’s unpaid taxes into a lien on July 1. Property with taxes unpaid after 21 months is subject to foreclosure (Town of Cortlandt).

Cities. The six cities run their own systems. Yonkers charges 15% yearly interest on late taxes and holds tax lien sales, but it canceled its 2026 sale (City of Yonkers, Real Property Tax). Mount Vernon forecloses in rem under a special 1974 state law when taxes are more than two years behind (Mount Vernon local law). For any Westchester city, the payoff and lien status come from that city’s tax office.

Can a former owner get back money left over from a tax foreclosure?

It depends on where the property is. New York changed its law in 2024 to return surplus under the state’s standard tax foreclosure process, and Suffolk set up its own claim process. In a NYC lien foreclosure, auction money left after the debt is paid goes to the former owner.

The change followed a 2023 case. On May 25, 2023, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court held that a homeowner had a valid claim under the Constitution’s Takings Clause, which bars the government from taking property without paying for it. Her county had sold her tax-foreclosed home and kept the money above the tax debt (Supreme Court decision).

New York responded in its 2024 state budget, which provides for returning tax foreclosure surplus to former owners (NYS Tax Department, 2024 legislation). Under the amended state process:

  • the government must figure out any surplus within 45 days of the sale and pay it into court (state tax law)
  • anyone with an interest in the property before the judgment, including a former owner or a junior lien holder, can claim it (state tax law)
  • on a public sale, the price paid counts as full value

The budget also changed a 1993 law that let some counties keep enforcing unpaid taxes under their own special laws. As the Suffolk County Legislature describes it, those counties can stay outside the standard state process if their local law gives former owners a way to claim surplus. Suffolk passed a 2024 local law for that purpose and set a 120-day deadline to apply in 2025 (Suffolk 2024 resolution; Suffolk 2025 local law). Surplus rules decide where auction money goes, not whether the auction buyer gets title.

How tax liens show up in a title search and at closing

The title company orders a tax search for every government that taxes the property. Underwriter guidelines treat it as a required search. The title report lists taxes, tax liens and tax sales “as set forth in the Tax Search” as exceptions, things the policy won’t cover unless they’re cleared (Stewart’s New York guidelines, discussed in Westchester municipal searches). Open items are paid off from the seller’s proceeds at closing, so the buyer’s policy can leave them out. Who gets paid differs:

Where Lien status Who gives the payoff figure
NYC Unsold taxes DOF
NYC Sold lien Lien trust servicer
Nassau Delinquent or sold County Treasurer
Suffolk After May 31 County Comptroller
Suffolk After tax deed Redemption Unit
Westchester Delinquent Town or city tax office

NYC. A sold lien is owed to the trust, not DOF. In Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, it shows up in ACRIS, the City’s online land records, as a tax lien sale certificate (document type TLS) (how to read ACRIS). DOF’s past sale lists also identify sold properties. The servicer’s payoff letter includes the surcharge and interest. If a lien foreclosure has been filed, the court file and any notice of pendency (a recorded notice of the lawsuit) become part of the search.

Nassau. Sold liens are paid off through the Treasurer by bank cashier’s check or cash. They can’t be paid online (Nassau County Treasurer). The payoff includes the bid interest and the County’s differential lien.

Suffolk. Before the tax deed, the payoff goes to the Comptroller. After it, the County owns the property, and the seller must redeem through the Redemption Unit before it can sell.

Example (hypothetical), Suffolk. A Brookhaven seller missed the second half of the 2024/25 tax bill, and a lien was sold to the County in December 2025. The buyer’s title search in October 2026 reports it. For a one-family house, the 36-month redemption period runs to December 2028. So the seller pays it off through the Comptroller at or before closing, and the title company drops the item once it sees proof of payment.

Buying at a tax-lien foreclosure auction is different; see checking liens before a NYC foreclosure auction.

Details for attorneys and title professionals

  • NYC lien sale laws. Official sources lists the local law numbers for the 2024 renewal and the three 2026 laws. The 2026 laws create the land bank, end ordinary sales after 2028 (allowing only a negotiated sale to the land bank), and set the best-efforts transfer duty.
  • Nassau. The interest caps, notice of sale and redemption rules come from the Nassau County Administrative Code. The 2021 decision applied the code’s rules on payment after a foreclosure is filed and on recoverable costs; the 2022 decision applied its notice-of-sale requirement. Full citations are in Official sources.
  • Suffolk. The County’s preferred-bidder role, the redemption periods and the published-notice rule come from separate sections of the Suffolk County Tax Act.
  • State in rem process. Westchester towns enforce under the in rem article of the Real Property Tax Law. The 2024 budget change is listed in Official sources. Its effect on counties that opted out under the 1993 law is stated here as the Suffolk Legislature describes it.
  • Mount Vernon. Its in rem authority is a 1974 special act (listed in Official sources).
  • The 2023 Supreme Court case. The surplus decision is the Takings Clause case listed in Official sources. Its closing line: “The taxpayer must render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but no more.”

Official sources

Related guides

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