Sell Your Right of Redemption After a Georgia Tax Sale

What you are selling

After a tax sale you no longer hold the property free and clear, but you are not out of it either. You hold the right to redeem: to pay the tax deed buyer what the law sets and take the property back. Georgia law lets anyone with an interest in the property redeem, and your interest can be conveyed. When you sign a quitclaim deed of your remaining interest, including the right to redeem, the buyer steps into your place and redeems from the tax deed holder. What you receive is the price you agreed, paid at closing.

This is not the same as selling the house. You are selling what is left of your interest in it, and the buyer takes on the redemption price, the liens that survive redemption, and the work of clearing title.

Who buys redemption rights

1. Investors who redeem

   An investor pays you for your interest, then pays the tax deed holder the redemption price and ends up with the property. The investor’s math is the property’s value minus the redemption price, the liens that come back, repairs, and a margin. Your price comes out of what is left.

2. The tax deed buyer

   The person who bought at the tax sale can also pay you to give up the right rather than wait out the year and go through the notice process. For them it means a clean title sooner; for you it means money now instead of nothing later.

How a sale is documented

Confirm what you hold

We pull the tax deed and check the sale date, who bought, what was paid, whether a notice of foreclosure of the right to redeem has been served, and what the deadline is. We check the title for liens that will survive redemption, because they shape the price.

Compute the redemption price

The amount paid at the sale, plus taxes the buyer has paid since and any assessments, plus a 20 percent premium in the first year and 10 percent more for each year after, plus the sheriff’s and publication costs if a notice has been out for more than 30 days. The calculator gives a first estimate; the buyer’s payoff statement gives the figure.

Agree a price and terms

A written agreement with the buyer: the price, when you are paid, who pays for closing, and what happens if the redemption deadline falls before closing. Nothing is signed on a doorstep.

Close before the deadline

You sign a quitclaim deed to the buyer that conveys your interest and expressly conveys the right to redeem; the buyer pays you; the buyer then redeems from the tax deed holder, who signs the quitclaim deed the statute calls for. If a barment notice is running, all of this is done before the date in it.

What affects the price

• How much the property is worth above the redemption price.
• Which liens survive redemption. A mortgage comes back with the title; so do judgment liens and association liens that were on the property when it sold.
• The condition of the property, and whether it is occupied.
• How much time is left. A buyer with eleven months can plan the redemption; a buyer with eleven days is taking a risk, and prices it.
• Any defect in the tax sale itself, which can make the right worth more, not less.

Signs of a bad offer

• Pressure to sign today, or a notary waiting in the car.
• A deed with no written agreement about the price or when you are paid.
• A price that ignores the equity. Compare any offer to what the property is worth minus the redemption price and the liens.
• A promise that you can stay in the house, with nothing in writing.
• No one willing to explain what the deed says.

A fair, documented sale protects you, and it protects the buyer, because a deed signed under pressure for far less than the right is worth can be challenged later.

If you would rather keep the property

Selling is not the only option. If you can raise the redemption price, we handle the tender. If a relative or a lender redeems for you, the statute allows it, and they hold a lien for what they paid. If there is excess money from the sale, that claim is yours whatever you decide about the property. The Georgia tax sale redemption page walks through all three.

What this costs

Fee arrangements depend on the posture of the matter and are set out in a written agreement before any work begins. We are glad to explain how fees would work in your situation when we speak — ask, and you will get a straight answer.

Common questions

Can I sell my house while the redemption period is running?

Not in the ordinary way. The tax deed buyer holds title until the property is redeemed. What you hold, and can sell, is your remaining interest in the property, including the right to redeem. You convey it by quitclaim deed, and the buyer of that interest redeems from the tax deed holder.

How long do I have to sell the right?

At least 12 months from the sale. After that the right continues until the tax deed buyer forecloses it by a notice served through the sheriff; the notice names the date the right ends and must reach the sheriff at least 45 days before it. For a judicial in rem tax foreclosure the right lasts 60 days from the sale. A sale of the right has to close before the deadline that applies to you.

What is the right worth?

Roughly, the property’s value minus the redemption price, minus the liens that come back with the title when it is redeemed, minus the buyer’s repairs and margin. There is no fixed figure. We work out the redemption price and the deadline from the tax deed and the notice, and we review any offer against them.

What happens to my mortgage?

Liens that were on the property when it sold come back when it is redeemed. A buyer of your right prices that in. If the mortgage had been paid off, or there never was one, there may be real equity.

Do I keep the excess funds from the sale?

Excess funds are a separate claim, with the official who ran the sale, for the former owner and lienholders. Selling your right of redemption does not by itself transfer that claim, and the paperwork should say so.

Can the tax deed buyer refuse to let the property be redeemed?

No. Redemption is a statutory right. The buyer must accept a proper tender of the full redemption price in certified funds while the right lasts. Georgia courts apply the tender rules strictly, which is why the amount and the timing have to be right.

Does Cruz Law Firm buy redemption rights?

No. The firm represents you, the former owner, and does not buy property or redemption rights. If a prospective buyer has any connection to the firm, you will be told so in writing before anything is signed and advised to get independent advice.