Sell a House for Back Taxes in Colorado Springs, CO

Back property taxes in Colorado do not lead straight to losing the house, which is why they are easy to let slide. Taxes still unpaid after the April 30 full-payment deadline, or a second half unpaid after June 15, accrue interest at one percent a month, and in October or November the El Paso County Treasurer sells the lien to an investor at the annual tax lien sale. The investor earns a set redemption interest, 13 percent for liens sold in 2026 and 14 percent for 2025, and may pay later years' taxes and add them to the lien. After August 1 of the third calendar year following the sale, the investor can apply for a treasurer's deed, which starts notices and a public auction of the right to that deed. You can redeem before the auction, subject to the Treasurer's deadlines, and the figure grows every month.

Colorado Springs Cash Buyers buys houses with delinquent taxes and sold tax liens across Colorado Springs and El Paso County. The back taxes are paid to the Treasurer out of the sale price at closing, the lien is redeemed, and the remainder is yours. This page explains how Colorado's tax lien system works, what the redemption figure includes, when the danger point arrives, and how a sale fits.

Colorado property taxes are paid in arrears, in two halves due at the end of February and mid-June, or in full by the end of April. Unpaid amounts accrue interest monthly. Each September the Treasurer publishes the delinquent list, and in the fall the liens are offered at a public tax lien sale. The winning bidder pays the taxes, interest and fees and receives a tax lien certificate. You still own the house, you can still live in it and sell it, but the certificate is now a lien ahead of nearly everything else, including the mortgage, which is why servicers often pay the taxes themselves and add the amount to your loan balance.

You redeem by paying the Treasurer the taxes, the interest at the rate set for that year's sale, and any later taxes the investor paid, also with interest. There is no payment plan on a sold lien; it is paid in full. After August 1 of the third calendar year following the lien sale, the investor may apply for a treasurer's deed; the El Paso County application fee is $1,300 and is added to what you owe. Under the procedure Colorado adopted in 2024 and revised effective June 1, 2026, the Treasurer notifies the owner and lienholders and then auctions the certificate of option for the deed to the highest bidder. You can redeem before the auction, but the revised process has notice and payment cutoffs ahead of the auction date, so confirm the exact deadlines with the Treasurer the day a notice arrives. If the property is auctioned, the overbid goes first to junior lienholders such as a mortgage lender and only the remainder to you. Losing the house outright therefore takes years, but interest, later tax advances and fees keep raising the redemption figure, and the mortgage lender may start its own foreclosure long before, since unpaid taxes are a default under the deed of trust.

Back taxes do not block a sale; they are paid at closing like any lien. The title company pulls the Treasurer's figures, including any sold liens and the redemption amount, and pays them from the purchase price before the balance is wired to you. If the house is also in a Public Trustee foreclosure because the lender declared a tax default, the lender's payoff is handled in the same closing. We buy the house as-is, so a Westside bungalow that fell behind on taxes because it also needed a roof is one transaction, not two problems.

Bills payable in 2026 cover 2025 taxes, and after the 2025 reassessment many owners saw a change that surprised those without escrow. Owners who are 65 by January 1 and have owned and lived in the home for the preceding ten consecutive years qualify for the senior homestead exemption, half of the first $200,000 of value, but it must be applied for with the Assessor by July 15, and eligible owners who never applied pay more than they need to. Inherited houses are one of the most common situations: the taxes were paid by a parent's escrow, the loan was paid off, and after the death no one received the bill until a lien sale notice arrived at an old address. Vacant houses, out-of-state owners and homes caught in a probate that stalled round out the list.

Send the address and, if you have it, the Treasurer's notice or the tax lien sale certificate number. We visit the house, usually within a day or two, and deliver a written offer within 24 hours of the visit. If you accept, the title company confirms the redemption figure with the Treasurer, which takes a few days, and a closing can follow in about a week. If a treasurer's deed application has already been filed, send us the notice immediately; the title company has to meet the Treasurer's redemption deadlines, which fall before the auction date itself. We pay the customary closing costs and there is no commission.

If the lien is one or two years old, the amount is manageable, and you want to keep the house, redeem it directly at the Treasurer's office and keep the property. A sale makes sense when the taxes are one of several problems, when the house is vacant or inherited and no one wants to carry it, or when the redemption figure has grown past what you can raise before the deed auction. We will give you our honest read when we see the numbers, and the Treasurer's office can tell you about any relief program that applies to current taxes; relief does not remove a lien that has already been sold.

We buy houses in Colorado Springs for any reason, any condition, or any challenge

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