Riverside County Tax-Defaulted Property: The Five-Year Clock From Missed Taxes to Auction

In Riverside County, a property whose taxes are still unpaid on June 30 becomes “tax-defaulted.” Once five years have passed in that status, the Treasurer-Tax Collector gains the power to sell it at public auction. Until then, the owner can redeem by paying everything owed, or can stop the clock with a five-year installment plan. Even after a sale is scheduled, the right to redeem lasts until the close of business on the last business day before the auction begins. Riverside County’s most recent annual sale ran on Bid4Assets from April 23 to April 28, 2026, and offered 826 tax-defaulted parcels.

This post walks through that clock from the first missed installment to the auction, what it costs to stop it at each stage, and what happens to any money left over after a tax sale. It also covers how a property with defaulted taxes can still be sold privately before the county sells it.

Year Zero: How a Missed Installment Becomes a Default

California property taxes are billed in two installments. The first becomes delinquent if it is not paid by December 10 and picks up a 10% penalty. The second becomes delinquent after April 10 and picks up a 10% penalty plus a $10 cost. When a deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, it moves to the next business day. These dates apply in every county, including Riverside.

A late payment between December and June is just a delinquency. The property becomes “tax-defaulted” only if any of that fiscal year’s taxes are still unpaid at the end of June 30. At that point, county tax collectors describe three changes:

• A $15 state redemption fee is added.
• A redemption penalty begins to accrue at 1.5% per month on the unpaid base taxes, added on the first day of each month.
• The defaulted years must generally be paid together. A single defaulted year cannot be redeemed separately from the others.

That 1.5% monthly penalty works out to 18% a year on the unpaid base tax. Five years of defaulted taxes, plus the original 10% penalties, plus five years of monthly redemption penalties, can add up to considerably more than the original bills. That is why the redemption figure on a Riverside County notice often surprises owners who remember the taxes as a few thousand dollars a year.

A Worked Example of How the Balance Grows

Take a hypothetical Riverside County house with an annual tax bill of $3,000, billed as two $1,500 installments, where neither installment is paid. By the end of June, the owner owes the $3,000 base tax, a $150 penalty on each installment, and the $10 cost on the second installment, for $3,310. On July 1, the property becomes tax-defaulted and the $15 redemption fee is added.

From then on, the 1.5% monthly redemption penalty runs on the $3,000 base tax, adding $45 a month. If nothing is paid for five full years, that one year of taxes has picked up about $2,700 in redemption penalties alone, and the payoff for that single year approaches $6,000. Meanwhile, each later year that goes unpaid adds its own base tax, its own 10% penalties and its own monthly redemption penalty. By the time the power to sell attaches, the redemption figure on a modest house can easily be several times one year’s tax bill.

These figures are only an illustration of the arithmetic. The county calculates the actual redemption amount, which can include other fees and costs, so always get the official figure from the Treasurer-Tax Collector before you rely on a number.

Years One to Five: The Installment Plan Option

Before the power to sell starts, an owner can put the defaulted taxes on a five-year installment plan of redemption. As county tax collectors describe it:

1. To open the plan, pay at least 20% of the redemption amount and pay the current year’s taxes.
2. Each year by April 10, pay at least another 20% of the redemption amount, plus interest at 1.5% per month on the unpaid balance.
3. Keep the current year’s taxes paid separately. Plan payments do not cover new bills.
4. If you miss a plan payment or fail to pay current taxes by April 10, the plan defaults.

The plan can be paid off early at any time. Its value is that it stops the five-year clock while it is in good standing. Its weakness is that the plan defaults easily. One missed April 10 date and the owner is back on the original schedule, with less time left.

Riverside County’s notices make the cut-off clear. In its May 2024 announcement, the county said 2,248 tax-defaulted properties would become subject to the Treasurer-Tax Collector’s power to sell on July 1, 2024. Owners could redeem or set up an installment plan only through June 30, 2024. After that date, “the entire balance must be paid in full to prevent the sale.” In other words, once the power to sell attaches, the installment plan is no longer available and only full payment stops the auction.

Year Five: The Notice of Impending Power to Sell

Revenue and Taxation Code section 3691 generally allows the tax collector to sell a residential property once it has been tax-defaulted for five years. Before that date arrives, the county publishes a notice of impending power to sell, listing the affected parcels and the amount needed to redeem each. The county publishes it in local newspapers and on its website. In 2024, Riverside County published its notice in mid-May, ahead of the July 1 date.

The State Controller’s standard notice form tells owners that redemption must happen before the close of business on the last business day of June, and that afterward the property becomes subject to sale. If you inherited a property or own one from out of state, this published notice may be the first sign of a problem. Mail to the property address goes unanswered when nobody lives there.

You can check whether a parcel is on the list through the published-notice page on countytreasurer.org, the Riverside County Treasurer-Tax Collector’s website. The office’s main line is (951) 955-3900.

The Auction: How Riverside County Runs Its Tax Sale

Riverside County holds an annual tax sale online. The county’s March 9, 2026 announcement described the 2026 sale:

• It ran on Bid4Assets.com from Thursday, April 23, 2026 through Tuesday, April 28, 2026.
• 826 tax-defaulted parcels were offered.
• Unsold parcels could be re-offered at a reduced minimum bid.
• Questions went to the Treasurer-Tax Collector’s office at (951) 955-3971.

The county publishes the parcel list in advance. Bidders research the parcels, register with the auction platform, and bid. The winning bidder receives a tax deed from the Treasurer-Tax Collector. For the former owner, the key date is not the last day of bidding but the day before the auction opens.

The Last Chance to Redeem

Even after a parcel is on the auction list, the owner, or anyone with an interest in the property, can still redeem it. The State Controller’s notice form and California law both put the cut-off at the close of business on the last business day before the date the tax sale begins. For an online sale that opens on a Thursday, that generally means the close of business on Wednesday.

Redemption after the power to sell attaches requires full payment, and the amount keeps growing. Riverside County’s notices say that additional penalties, interest and tax sale fees apply after the amount stated in the published notice. Call the Treasurer-Tax Collector for an exact payoff figure on the day you plan to pay, and pay with certified funds or another method the office accepts so there is no delay in posting.

Once the auction opens, the right to redeem ends. After the tax deed is recorded, the former owner’s interest is gone, and the county will not undo a valid sale because the owner later finds the money.

After the Sale: Claiming Excess Proceeds

If a parcel sells for more than the taxes, penalties and costs owed, the difference is called excess proceeds. California law does not give that money to the county outright. Under Revenue and Taxation Code section 4675, “parties of interest,” which include lienholders of record and the former owner of record, can file a claim for it, and competing claims are paid in order of priority.

The deadlines are strict:

• Within 90 days after the tax deed is recorded, the county must attempt to notify parties of interest under section 4676, using address searches and, if needed, newspaper publication.
• Claims must be filed within one year after the tax deed is recorded. Riverside County’s published notices state that claims filed more than one year after recordation “cannot be considered.”
• Unclaimed excess proceeds go to the county’s general fund under section 4674.

A Riverside County Board of Supervisors agenda item from April 28, 2026 shows how this works in practice. A parcel sold at the May 2, 2023 tax sale produced $7,270.08 in excess proceeds. The tax deed was recorded on June 20, 2023, and the county published notice to parties of interest on July 13, 2023. One claim was received inside the one-year window. The Treasurer-Tax Collector recommended denying it because the claimant did not provide the documentation needed to support it.

That example carries the main lesson. A claim must be in writing and must contain enough information and proof to establish the claimant’s right to the money. Heirs often have the hardest time, because they need to prove that they, and not someone else, now hold the former owner’s interest. Claim forms are available from the Treasurer-Tax Collector at 4080 Lemon Street in Riverside. The process is similar to the one after a mortgage foreclosure, which we describe in our guide to claiming foreclosure surplus funds in California.

Selling Before the County Does

A tax-defaulted property can still be sold privately at any point before the redemption cut-off. Defaulted taxes are a lien on the property, and escrow handles them like any other lien. The title company obtains a payoff figure from the Treasurer-Tax Collector, and escrow pays it from the sale proceeds at closing. The seller then receives what remains. Our explainer on selling a house with back taxes owed in California covers how the payoff appears on the closing statement.

The timing matters. A private sale usually takes longer than a tax payment. A buyer has to make an offer, escrow has to open, and title has to issue a preliminary report. If the auction opens in two weeks, a sale that needs 30 days will not close in time. In that situation, the safest path is often to redeem first, even with borrowed money or money advanced by the buyer, and then complete the sale. Talk to escrow early about whether funds can be released to the tax collector before closing.

Selling before the auction almost always leaves the owner better off than waiting for the county. At a tax sale, the price depends on who bids that week, and the former owner gets only what remains after taxes and fees, and only by filing a claim within a year. A negotiated sale lets the owner set terms, keep all the equity above the payoff, and close on a known date.

A Common Riverside County Scenario: Inherited Land and Absentee Heirs

Tax-defaulted parcels in Riverside County are not only houses. The county’s lists include vacant desert lots, rural parcels and small fee parcels with minimum bids of $100 or $500. Many belong to owners who died, owners who moved out of state years ago, or families who forgot a parcel was even in the estate. When the owner has died, the heirs may not know the taxes exist until the notice of impending power to sell appears in the newspaper.

If you are an heir, there are two separate clocks. One is the tax clock described above. The other is the estate’s own process. Someone with legal authority, an executor, administrator or successor trustee, has to act for the estate before the property can be redeemed through a plan or sold. If nobody has that authority yet, getting it can take weeks or months. Read our guide to Riverside County probate court and selling a house for where those cases are heard. Paying the taxes to stop a sale does not by itself give the person who paid any ownership in the property.

When a Cash Sale Is the Wrong Answer

If you have the money, or can borrow it, and the property is worth keeping, simply redeem it. Paying the full balance or getting on an installment plan before the power to sell attaches costs far less than selling at a discount. If the property is a well-kept house you plan to sell anyway, and you have months before any auction, listing it with an agent will often bring more than a direct cash sale.

A direct sale makes sense when the auction is close, when the owner cannot raise the payoff, when the property is vacant or in poor condition and would be hard to finance, or when heirs living far away want one simple closing. In those cases, speed and certainty are worth more than the last few percentage points of price.

A Checklist for Riverside County Owners and Heirs

1. Look up the parcel on the Treasurer-Tax Collector’s website and confirm which years are unpaid and whether the parcel is tax-defaulted.
2. Note whether the power to sell has attached. If not, decide whether to redeem in full or start a five-year installment plan before June 30.
3. If the power to sell has attached, get a current payoff figure and find out whether the parcel is on the next auction list.
4. Mark the redemption cut-off: close of business on the last business day before the sale opens.
5. If you plan to sell, open escrow immediately and ask the title company to confirm the payoff and the closing timeline.
6. If the owner has died, find out who has legal authority to act for the estate.
7. If the parcel has already been sold, watch for the county’s excess proceeds notice and file a documented claim within one year of the tax deed recording.

If a Riverside County property is behind on taxes and you want to sell it before the county does, our page on how we buy houses in Riverside County explains how a direct sale works, including paying off the tax lien through escrow. For a no-obligation cash offer, contact Cash Home Buyers CA or call (424) 435-2326. When you sell to us, we pay the standard closing costs, including the county and city transfer taxes, escrow and title. You can also see our Google listing for directions and contact details.