If you’ve fallen behind on property taxes, the mail starts to feel like a threat. A notice from the Revenue Commissioner. A letter naming somebody you’ve never met as the holder of a lien on your own house. Maybe a postcard from an investor who found your address on a public list and wants to know if you’re “motivated.”
We talk to Gulf Coast homeowners in exactly this spot every month, and the first thing worth saying is this: you have not lost your house. In Alabama, an unpaid tax bill starts a long, slow process with several exits along the way — and one of those exits is selling. You absolutely can sell a house with back taxes in Alabama. The taxes get paid out of the closing, not out of your pocket beforehand.
Here’s how the process actually works in Mobile and Baldwin County, what the deadlines are, and what your options look like from where you’re standing right now.
What Actually Happens When You Fall Behind in Alabama
Property taxes in Alabama become due October 1 each year and go delinquent if they aren’t paid before midnight on December 31. After that, a $5 penalty attaches and interest starts running at 12% annually.
Since 2018, when the Legislature passed Act 2018-577, counties have been allowed to collect delinquent taxes by auctioning a tax lieninstead of selling the property itself. Both of our home counties took that route. Mobile County has auctioned liens since tax year 2019; Baldwin County since tax year 2018. The law lives in Title 40, Chapter 10, Article 7 of the Code of Alabama.
That distinction matters more than almost anything else in this article, so we’ll say it plainly: the county is selling a lien, not your house. A tax lien purchaser acquires no right, title, or interest in the property. They cannot enter it. They cannot rent it out. They cannot collect anything from it. All they hold is a claim for the money you owe, plus interest.
The auctions run once a year, between March 1 and June 15:
- Baldwin County held its 2026 auction on March 24, 2026, online at GovEase — the same spring timeline Baldwin County homeowners will face again next year.
- Mobile County held its 2026 auction on May 11, 2026, also online at GovEase.
Both counties publish the delinquent list about a month beforehand — Baldwin by March 31, Mobile by March 30 — and both mail notice to every delinquent owner at least 30 days before the auction. You can pay right up until the final Friday before the sale and keep your parcel off the list entirely.
The Three-Year Clock — and Why It’s Longer Than You Think
If a lien on your property did sell this spring, here’s the part most homeowners don’t know: you have three years from the date of the sale to redeem it. Not three months. Three years.
To redeem, you pay the amount shown on the tax lien certificate — the delinquent taxes, interest, penalties, fees and costs — plus the interest owed to the lien purchaser and a $10 redemption fee. It has to be certified funds: cash, cashier’s check, or money order, handled through the Revenue Commissioner’s office.
Two wrinkles worth knowing:
You can’t leapfrog. If a lien from a prior year is outstanding, you have to redeem it before you’re allowed to pay the current year’s taxes. This is how a manageable bill quietly becomes an unmanageable one — each unpaid year stacks a new lien on top of the last. We see it most often with an inherited house, where the taxes lapsed for years before anyone realized the bill had become theirs.
The interest rate was bid down, not up. Alabama auctions start at a 12% ceiling and bidders compete by accepting less. On a contested parcel the rate can be bid all the way to 0%. So the payoff figure may be smaller than you’re bracing for. Call and ask before you assume.
Mobile County’s Revenue Commission is at 3925 Michael Blvd, Suite G, and the Redemption Department can be reached at (251) 574-8530. Baldwin County’s office is at (251) 937-0245. A five-minute phone call gets you a real number instead of a worry.
Your Realistic Options From Here
- Pay it off. If the balance is a few thousand dollars and you have it, this is the cleanest path and nothing else in this article applies.
- Sell on the traditional market. This works when the house is in good shape and you have runway. A title company will pull the lien during the search and pay it at closing from your proceeds. The catch is time and condition — a listing takes 30 to 90 days on the Gulf Coast, plus repairs, showings, and a buyer’s financing contingency. If deferred maintenance is part of why the taxes went unpaid, the two problems tend to feed each other.
- Sell as-is for cash. If the house needs work, or if the lien has been stacking for a couple of years, choosing to sell as-is for cash is usually the fastest way to stop the bleeding. The tax debt is paid off at the closing table out of the sale proceeds, the same way a mortgage payoff is handled. You don’t have to clear the taxes first — that’s the single biggest misconception we hear.
- Do nothing. We list this honestly because it is a choice, and it’s the only one that ends badly. If the lien is never redeemed, the certificate holder can eventually bring a foreclosure action. They have up to ten years from the certificate date to do it. Waiting doesn’t make the number smaller.
How a Cash Sale Handles the Tax Lien
If a lien on your property did sell this spring, here’s the part most homeowners don’t know: you have three years from the date of the sale to redeem it. Not three months. Three years.
- We look at the house as it sits. No repairs, no cleanout, no mowing the yard first.
- Our title company pulls the payoff. Every lien on the parcel gets identified — tax liens, mortgages, code enforcement, everything. No surprises later.
- The payoff comes out of the purchase price at closing. The county gets paid directly. You get the remainder, and if you’re wondering how that figure is set, here’s how we calculate your offer.
- You pick the closing date. Sometimes a seller needs seven days. Sometimes they need six weeks to get a parent moved. Either is fine.
If the payoff exceeds what the house is worth — rare, but it happens on long-vacant parcels in Prichard, Eight Mile, or rural Mobile County — we’ll tell you that on the first call rather than tie your property up while we figure it out.
What to Do This Month
We’re writing this in August, which is a useful moment. The 2026 auctions are behind us and the next tax year’s bill comes due October 1, 2026, going delinquent after December 31, 2026. That gives you a real window:
- Pull your parcel. Mobile County: esearch.mobilecopropertytax.com. Baldwin County: the Revenue Commission’s property search.
- Call the Redemption Department and get the exact payoff on any existing lien. Ask what interest rate was bid.
- Decide before October. If you already know the fall bill isn’t going to get paid either, that’s the signal to act now — while you still have three years of runway and a house you control, rather than after a second lien stacks on the first.
Talk to Someone Local
Heartland Buys is based at 358 St Louis St in downtown Mobile. We’re not a national call center working from a list — we know the difference between a Midtown bungalow and a slab house in Tillmans Corner, and we’ve walked plenty of properties where the tax bill was the least of what had gone wrong.
If you want to sell a house with back taxes in Alabama, or you just want somebody to explain your payoff letter without a sales pitch attached, call or text us at (251) 325-1091. There’s no cost and no obligation, and if the right answer for you is “redeem it and keep the house,” we’ll tell you that too.
About Heartland Buys
Heartland Buys is a local home buying company serving Mobile, Baldwin County, and the Florida Panhandle. We buy houses in any condition — no repairs, no commissions, no hassle. Call us at (251) 325-1091 or visit heartlandbuys.com for a free, no-obligation cash offer.
Mobile County Revenue Commission — Tax Lien Sale FAQ (mobilecopropertytax.com/taxliensale/)
Baldwin County Commission — Tax Lien Auction (baldwincountyal.gov/government/revenue-commission/tax-lien-auction)
Code of Alabama, Title 40, Chapter 10, Article 7 (§§ 40-10-180 through 40-10-202); Act 2018-577