Delinquent Property Taxes in Massachusetts: A Tax Taking, a Land Court Case, and One Date That Sets Your Rate
Reviewed by DocDraft Legal Team · Massachusetts · Last updated October 21, 2026
A Massachusetts city or town does not auction your home to the highest bidder when the tax bill goes unpaid, it takes it: the collector records an instrument of taking and the parcel becomes a tax title held by the treasurer as security for the debt (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 54). Delinquent property taxes are taxes an owner failed to pay by the date the law fixes, after which interest and charges are added and the property can be taken or sold to collect them. Title does not pass at the taking. It passes only when the Land Court, which holds exclusive jurisdiction, enters a judgment foreclosing the right of redemption (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 64). Until a petition is filed you may redeem at any time by paying the tax title account with interest and charges (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 62). The holder cannot file for 12 months after a taking made on or after November 1, 2024, and 6 months applies to an earlier one (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 65; Acts of 2025, c. 14, s. 87). That same date sets your rate: 8 per cent a year simple on the original sum for later tax titles, 16 per cent for titles created before it. The bill itself runs at 14 per cent a year from the due date beforehand (M.G.L. c. 59, s. 57). Even after judgment you may claim the excess equity above the debt, by written claim to the judgment holder (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 64A). Attorney review is available through DocDraft.
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Where are you with the unpaid property taxes?
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How long do I have to redeem delinquent property taxes in Massachusetts?
There is no calendar deadline. Any person with an interest in land taken or sold for nonpayment of taxes may redeem at any time prior to the filing of a petition for foreclosure (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 62). Once a petition is filed, the Land Court sets both the amount and the payment date (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 68).
What does it cost in interest to redeem a Massachusetts tax title?
A simple annual rate set by statute, never bid at an auction. Redemption requires interest at 8 per cent upon the original sum for which the land was taken or sold, from the date of sale, plus every charge added to the tax title account (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 62). Takings before November 1, 2024 carry 16 per cent.
When can a Massachusetts city or town take my property for unpaid taxes?
If a tax on land is not paid within fourteen days after demand and remains unpaid at the date of taking, the collector may take the land, first giving fourteen days' notice of intention to take (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 53). For residential property that notice is mailed, posted on the property, and published on the municipal website.
How soon can a Massachusetts tax title holder file in the Land Court?
After 12 months from the sale or taking where the land was taken on or after November 1, 2024, and after 6 months for an earlier taking (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 65; Acts of 2025, c. 14, s. 87). Abandoned buildings, parcels certified under section 81B, and written owner consent allow an immediate petition.
Massachusetts delinquent property tax rules at a glance
A Massachusetts tax title is neither a sale of your house nor a certificate auctioned to an investor. Delinquent property taxes are taxes left unpaid past the date the law sets, after which interest and charges accrue and the city or town can take or sell the property to collect them. Here the collector takes the parcel, records the instrument of taking within sixty days, and the treasurer runs it as a tax title account (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 54, s. 50). Two things make this state unusual. One court, the Land Court, holds exclusive jurisdiction to foreclose the right of redemption (s. 64), so the operative deadline is a citation return date and a payment date a judge fixes, not a date on a calendar. And a single date, November 1, 2024, decides whether the account accrues at 8 or at 16 per cent a year.
A Worcester two family where the recording date, not the calendar, sets the rate
A two family on Worcester's north side carries about 7,400 dollars of unpaid tax and interest, which has run at 14 per cent a year from each due date (M.G.L. c. 59, s. 57C). The collector serves a demand, gives fourteen days' notice, and records an instrument of taking on March 12, 2025, so the account moves to the Treasurer and Collector of Taxes as a tax title (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 53, s. 54). Because that recording falls after November 1, 2024, the account accrues 8 per cent a year simple on the original sum rather than 16, and the city cannot petition before March 12, 2026 (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 62, s. 65; Acts of 2025, c. 14, s. 87). Whether a later redemption is allowed, and on what terms, is for the Land Court.
Relevant Laws
M.G.L. c. 59, s. 57 (annual bill, due date and 14 per cent interest)
Provides that bills for real estate and personal property taxes shall be sent out seasonably upon commitment and shall be due and payable on July first of each year for all purposes except the calculation of interest, and that where more than one half the balance remains unpaid after November 1, interest at the rate of 14 per cent per annum, computed from the due date, shall be paid, with the same rate running on the remaining half left unpaid after May 1.
M.G.L. c. 59, s. 57C (quarterly and semi-annual billing dates)
Applies in any city or town which accepts the section. In quarterly communities the preliminary tax is due in 2 installments, the first on August 1 and the second on November 1, and the actual bill is due in 2 installments on February 1 and on May 1, after which dates if unpaid they become delinquent. In semi-annual communities the preliminary tax is due October 1 and the actual bill April 1. Interest at the rate of fourteen percent per annum computed from the due date is paid on a delinquent amount.
M.G.L. c. 60, s. 15 (the only fees a collector may add)
Lists the interest, charges and fees, and no other, that shall be added to the amount of the tax and collected as part of it. They include not more than 30 dollars for each written demand provided for by law, 10 dollars for each parcel for preparing the advertisement of sale or taking plus the necessary legal fees for search of title, the cost of the newspaper advertisement, 5 dollars for each parcel for posting notices, 10 dollars for preparing the deed or instrument of taking, and the cost of recording the instrument of taking under section 54.
M.G.L. c. 60, s. 16 (the demand that has to come first)
Requires the collector, before selling the land of a resident or non-resident, to serve on the person a statement of the amount with a demand for its payment, mailed to the taxpayer's last known residence and usual place of abode or place of business. Where the land is Class one residential property the demand must include a uniform notice prepared by the Department of Revenue in language understandable by a least sophisticated consumer, together with a notice in the 7 most commonly spoken languages in the Commonwealth that it affects important legal rights and should be translated immediately.
M.G.L. c. 60, s. 53 (the taking, and the notice it requires)
Provides that if a tax on land is not paid within fourteen days after demand and remains unpaid at the date of taking, the collector may take the land for the town, first giving fourteen days' notice of intention to exercise the power of taking. Where the land is Class one residential property that notice must be mailed to the taxpayer, posted upon the property, and published on the town or city website, and must carry the Department of Revenue notice and the translation alert.
M.G.L. c. 60, s. 54 (instrument of taking, recording, and what title it creates)
Provides that the instrument of taking shall not be valid unless recorded within sixty days of the date of taking, that title to the land so taken thereupon vests in the town subject to the right of redemption, and that such title shall, until redemption or until the right of redemption is foreclosed, be held as security for the repayment of the taxes with all intervening costs, terms imposed for redemption and charges, with interest thereon.
M.G.L. c. 60, s. 45 (collector's deed at a tax sale)
Governs the alternative route. The collector executes and delivers to the purchaser a deed of the land stating the cause of sale and the price, the deed conveys the land subject to the right of redemption, and the title conveyed is held as security for repayment of the purchase price with intervening costs and charges until redemption or foreclosure. The deed is not valid unless recorded within sixty days after the sale, and no sale gives the purchaser any right to possession until the right of redemption is foreclosed.
M.G.L. c. 60, s. 50 and s. 61 (the tax title account and later years' taxes)
Section 50 puts every instrument of taking and collector's deed in the custody of the town treasurer and requires a separate account for each parcel, charged with the amount in the instrument, the recording cost, and all later uncollected taxes certified under section 61. Section 61 continues the lien for later taxes without a fresh taking, requires the collector to certify them to the treasurer not later than September first of the year following assessment, and makes their payment part of the terms of redemption.
M.G.L. c. 60, s. 62 (redemption, and the 8 per cent rate)
Provides that any person having an interest in land taken or sold for nonpayment of taxes may, at any time prior to the filing of a petition for foreclosure under section sixty-five, redeem by paying or tendering to the treasurer the amount of the tax title account and interest at 8 per cent upon the original sum for which the land was taken or sold, from the date of sale, and upon each sum certified under section sixty-one from the date of certification, together with all charges lawfully added. It also sets the terms for redeeming from a purchaser or assignee, including not more than 3 dollars in the aggregate for examination of title and a deed of release and 10 dollars additional for paying the treasurer instead, and lets the treasurer accepting a payment extend the time during which foreclosure may not be instituted for a period not exceeding 2 years beyond the section 65 period.
M.G.L. c. 60, s. 62A (municipal payment agreements)
Lets municipalities by bylaw or ordinance authorize payment agreements between the treasurer and persons entitled to redeem parcels in tax title, for a maximum term of no more than 10 years, with power to waive the interest accrued on the tax title account, uniformly for classes of tax titles defined in the bylaw. Any such agreement must require a minimum payment at the inception of 10 per cent of the amount needed to redeem, and during its term the treasurer may not bring an action to foreclose unless payments are missed.
M.G.L. c. 60, s. 65 (when a petition may be filed, and the early routes)
Provides that whoever holds the title acquired by a sale or taking for taxes may bring a petition in the Land Court for foreclosure of all rights of redemption either after 12 months from the sale or taking, or in the case of a city or town at any time if the buildings have been found abandoned under section eighty-one A or there has been a certification under section 81B that the redemption amount exceeds the assessed value of the parcel, or at any time following the written consent of the record owner. It also caps legal fees added to the tax title account at actual costs and requires the judge to consider the taxpayer's ability to pay.
M.G.L. c. 60, s. 66 (title examination and notice of the case)
Requires the court, on the filing of a petition, to have one of its official examiners examine the title to determine who may be interested, and then to notify all persons appearing to be interested, whether as equity owners, mortgagees, lienors, attaching creditors or otherwise, by registered mail with return of receipt required. The notice fixes the time within which an appearance may be entered and an answer filed and states that unless the party appears and answers a default will be recorded and the right of redemption forever barred.
M.G.L. c. 60, s. 68 and s. 69 (redeeming inside the case, and the decree)
Section 68, as amended effective August 5, 2025, provides that a person claiming an interest who desires to redeem shall file an answer and an offer to redeem on terms fixed by the court, and that the court may in its discretion make a finding allowing redemption within a time fixed by the court on payment of the original sum, costs, interest at the time rate of 8 per cent per annum, all subsequent taxes, costs and interest, the costs of the proceeding and such counsel fee as the court deems reasonable. Section 69 provides that if redemption is not made within the time and on the terms fixed, a decree shall be entered which shall forever bar all rights of redemption.
M.G.L. c. 60, s. 64 and s. 64A (absolute title, and the excess equity claim)
Section 64 gives the Land Court exclusive jurisdiction and makes the title absolute after judgment, while providing that the judgment shall not impair or limit the right of the owner at the time of foreclosure, and of those holding an interest then, to receive any excess equity, subject to section 64A. Section 64A requires the judgment holder to elect within 30 days to retain or to sell and to notify former owners by certified mail, to appraise within 120 days if retaining or list within 180 days if selling, to mail a written itemized accounting within 30 days of the sale or appraisal, to accept written claims for up to 18 months after that notice, to hold excess equity in a segregated interest bearing escrow account, and to dispose of equity unclaimed within 19 months under chapter 200A. Disputes go to the Superior Court on a complaint filed not more than 12 months after the accounting notice.
Acts of 2024, c. 140, ss. 80 to 99 and s. 250 (the rewrite, effective November 1, 2024)
The act that rewrote this chapter. Section 88 amended section 62 by striking the word sixteen and inserting 8. Section 94 amended section 65 by striking six and inserting 12. Section 92 rewrote section 64 and section 93 inserted section 64A, the excess equity process. Section 80 added the definition of excess equity to section 1. Sections 89 to 91 extended payment agreements from 5 to 10 years and cut the minimum payment from 25 to 10 per cent. Section 250 provides that sections 80 to 99, inclusive, shall take effect on November 1, 2024.
Acts of 2025, c. 14, ss. 23, 24 and 87 (which tax titles the new rules reach)
An emergency law approved August 5, 2025. Section 23 changed the section 64A election window from 14 days to 30 days. Section 24 struck sixteen from section 68 and inserted 8, so the court applied rate matches the treasurer's. Section 87 is the applicability clause and provides that notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, sections 88 and 94 of chapter 140 of the acts of 2024 and section 24 shall only apply to land purchased or taken under a tax title on or after November 1, 2024. That is why land taken earlier still accrues 16 per cent and still carries the 6 month wait.
Land Court: tax lien foreclosure informational outline
The court's own plain language guide to the process, for self represented litigants and taxpayers. It states that after a tax taking the account moves from the collector to the treasurer into a tax title account which earns 8 percent simple interest annually, that prior to November 1, 2024 tax title accounts gained 16 percent simple interest annually, that before the sale or taking outstanding bills accumulate interest at 14 percent each year, that depending on the date of the taking or sale the case can be brought either 6 or 12 months after it, and that excess equity claims are submitted to the plaintiff and not to the Land Court, with disputes heard in the Superior Court.
Regional Variances
Massachusetts delinquent property tax rules at a glance
Sale mechanism
A municipal taking that creates a lien like tax title, then a judicial foreclosure. The collector takes the land, the instrument of taking is recorded within sixty days, title vests in the town subject to the right of redemption and is held as security for repayment (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 54). A collector's sale under sections 43 and 45 is the alternative route. Absolute title requires a judgment of the Land Court, which has exclusive jurisdiction (s. 64).
Delinquency dates
Set by what the community adopted. Annual billing: due and payable July 1, with interest from the due date once more than half the balance is unpaid after November 1, and on the rest after May 1 (M.G.L. c. 59, s. 57). Quarterly billing under section 57C: preliminary installments August 1 and November 1, actual installments February 1 and May 1. Semi-annual: preliminary October 1, actual April 1.
Interest before any taking
Fourteen per cent per annum computed from the due date, and no separate flat penalty percentage (M.G.L. c. 59, s. 57, s. 57C). Collection fees are capped item by item by M.G.L. c. 60, s. 15, which lists the charges that may be added and no other, including not more than 30 dollars for each written demand and 10 dollars for preparing the instrument of taking.
Time before the court can be asked to end redemption
Twelve months from the sale or taking where the land was taken or purchased on or after November 1, 2024, and six months where it was taken earlier (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 65; Acts of 2025, c. 14, s. 87). A petition may be filed immediately where buildings are found abandoned under section 81A, where section 81B certifies the redemption amount exceeds the assessed value, or on the record owner's written consent.
Redemption period and clock
No fixed length. Redemption is open at any time prior to the filing of a petition for foreclosure (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 62). After filing it continues only through the court: the owner files an answer and an offer to redeem, and the court may allow redemption within a time it fixes (s. 68). A decree then forever bars all rights of redemption (s. 69). What the taking date starts is the holder's waiting period, not the owner's deadline.
Redeemer's charge
A simple annual rate fixed by statute, not a monthly penalty, not a flat premium, and not bid down at an auction. Eight per cent upon the original sum for which the land was taken or sold, from the date of sale, plus the same rate on each later year's tax from its certification date, plus all charges lawfully added to the tax title account (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 62). Land taken or purchased before November 1, 2024 accrues 16 per cent (Acts of 2025, c. 14, s. 87).
Other redemption costs
The whole tax title account, including later years' taxes, costs and interest certified under section 61. Redeeming from a purchaser or assignee adds not more than 3 dollars in the aggregate for examination of title and a deed of release, the actual recording costs, and 10 dollars additional if the sum is paid to the treasurer instead (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 62). Inside a case, add the costs of the proceeding and a counsel fee the court finds reasonable (s. 68), capped at actual cost and weighed against ability to pay (s. 65).
Notice to the owner
A written demand served before any taking (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 16), then fourteen days' notice of intention to take which, for Class one residential property, must be mailed to the taxpayer, posted upon the property and published on the town or city website (s. 53). Both carry a Department of Revenue notice written for a least sophisticated consumer plus a translation alert in the 7 most commonly spoken languages. Once a case is filed, the court notifies interested parties by registered mail with return receipt (s. 66).
Where to redeem
The city or town treasurer, who has custody of the instrument of taking and keeps the tax title account for the parcel (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 50), and who acknowledges satisfaction in a recordable instrument on payment (s. 62). The collector takes payment before a taking. If the tax title was assigned or auctioned, or the receivable assigned before any taking, the holder is a private purchaser and payment goes to that holder (s. 52, s. 2C).
Surplus proceeds
Claimable, and recently rewritten. A judgment of foreclosure shall not impair the right of the owner at the time of foreclosure to receive any excess equity (M.G.L. c. 60, s. 64). The judgment holder elects within 30 days to retain or sell, appraises within 120 days or lists within 180 days, and mails a written itemized accounting within 30 days of the sale or appraisal. Written claims go to the judgment holder, not the court, within 18 months of that notice, equity unclaimed at 19 months passes under chapter 200A, and disputes are heard in the Superior Court (s. 64A).
Payment plan
Two routes, one of them local. A payment agreement under M.G.L. c. 60, s. 62A is available only where the municipality authorized it by bylaw or ordinance; it runs up to 10 years, may waive accrued interest, needs 10 per cent at the inception, and bars foreclosure while payments are made. Independently, a treasurer who accepts installments on the tax title account may extend the period during which foreclosure may not be instituted by up to 2 years (s. 62). Neither is available from a private holder.
Frequently Asked Questions
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