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- Los Angeles County splits the annual secured tax bill into two installments, delinquent after December 10 and April 10, each with a 10 percent penalty and a $10 cost on the second.
- Whatever is still unpaid at 12:01 a.m. on July 1 is declared in default, with a $15 redemption fee and 1.5 percent a month on the defaulted taxes from then on.
- The Tax Collector can sell a residential property after five years of tax default and nonresidential commercial property after three, and an apartment building used as homes falls on the five-year side.
- The five-year installment plan has to be opened before the power to sell arises.
- A sale settles the taxes through escrow, and any payment escrow makes to the Tax Collector shows up on your closing statement.
You can sell a building with unpaid property taxes, and escrow can pay the Tax Collector out of the sale money at closing. What time changes is the amount: a 10 percent penalty after each installment date, then a fee and a monthly penalty from July 1, and eventually the county's own power to sell.
That calendar belongs to the county. If the loan is also in default, a second calendar runs beside it, and the loan's is much shorter.
When is a Los Angeles County tax bill delinquent?
The annual secured property tax bill is paid in two installments, on dates the Treasurer and Tax Collector sets out the same way every year.
| Installment | Due | Delinquent if not paid by | Added after that date |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | November 1 | December 10 | A 10 percent penalty |
| Second | February 1 | April 10 | A 10 percent penalty and a $10 cost |
Supplemental bills are separate from the annual bill. Each one carries its own due dates, printed on the bill, so check for them by name when you add up what is owed.
What happens on July 1 if the taxes are still unpaid?
Unpaid taxes change status at the start of the new fiscal year. Under Revenue and Taxation Code section 3436, at 12:01 a.m. on July 1 the taxes, assessments, penalties and costs still unpaid on real property are declared in default by operation of law. The Tax Collector adds a $15 redemption fee that day. From the same July 1, section 4103 charges a redemption penalty of 1.5 percent a month on the defaulted taxes until they are paid.
Here is how fast that adds up, using made-up numbers. Take a $24,000 annual bill, due in two $12,000 installments, and pay neither.
- After December 10, the first installment carries a $1,200 penalty.
- After April 10, the second carries $1,200 more plus the $10 cost, so $26,410 is owed when the fiscal year ends.
- On July 1 that amount is declared in default and the $15 fee is added, for $26,425.
- Each month after that adds 1.5 percent of the $24,000 in tax, which is $360. Seven months on, the figure is $28,945.
That total comes before the next year's bill, which has installments of its own on the same November and February dates. The Tax Collector's figure is the one that governs. The arithmetic only shows how quickly it grows.
When can the Tax Collector sell the building?
Five years after the taxes go into default, if they have not been redeemed, the Tax Collector gains the power to sell the property under section 3691. For nonresidential commercial property the period is three years. For taxes declared in default on July 1, 2026, five years runs to July 1, 2031, and three years to July 1, 2029.
Section 3691 defines nonresidential commercial property by what it leaves out. The first exclusion is a constructed single-family or multifamily unit that is used primarily as a permanent residence, intended for that use, or zoned as a residence, along with the land it sits on. An apartment building whose units are people's homes fits that exclusion, which puts it on the five-year track. The Tax Collector describes its installment plan the same way, with residential property at five years and commercial property at three.
A building with shops on the ground floor and apartments above is harder to place, because the definition says nothing about mixed use. Ask the Tax Collector which period it applies to your parcel, in writing, and have a California real estate attorney read the answer if two years of difference would change your plans.
Can you pay defaulted taxes in installments?
Yes, until the power to sell arises. Section 4217 lets any person start an installment plan of redemption, which the Tax Collector calls the Five-Pay Plan, at any time before 5 p.m. on the last business day before the Tax Collector obtains the power to sell.
The current year's taxes, and any earlier year's taxes with their penalties and costs, are paid with or before the first installment. In each later year you pay that year's taxes in full plus at least 20 percent of the original defaulted amount, and the Tax Collector adds interest. It says that opening a plan keeps the property from being sold at public auction.
The plan spreads the cost over five years without lowering it. If a year's required payment is missed, section 4217 bars starting a new plan on property that would have been subject to a power of sale, so open one only if every annual payment is realistic.
Paying it all through escrow at closing
A sale is the other way out, and escrow handles the money. The Tax Collector describes the process in its own terms: escrow companies estimate the property tax due and debit or credit it between buyer and seller out of the proceeds of the sale, and any payment escrow makes to the Treasurer and Tax Collector appears on your closing statement.
Tell escrow on the first day that the taxes are behind, and give it every bill you have, the annual installments and any supplemental bills. A change in ownership is itself a supplemental event under the Board of Equalization's explanation, so your sale will produce a supplemental assessment of its own. An unpaid supplemental bill from your purchase, or from construction you completed, belongs in the same count.
Shaya's part is the price and the timing. He can tell you what the building should sell for and how long a qualified buyer would need to close, which is the number to set against the tax figure and the loan payoff.
When the loan is in default too
An unpaid tax bill can be the loan default itself. The reinstatement right in Civil Code section 2924c covers a loan declared due because of a default in the payment of taxes, and also a default on advances the lender made under the loan documents, which is how a tax payment the lender covered for you comes back as something you owe.
| Property taxes | The loan | |
|---|---|---|
| What starts the clock | An installment unpaid after December 10 or April 10 | A notice of default, recorded with the county |
| Cost of waiting | 10 percent per installment, then a $15 fee and 1.5 percent a month from July 1 | Whatever the reinstatement itemization and the payoff statement show |
| How it can end in a forced sale | The Tax Collector's power to sell, after five years of default on residential property | A trustee's sale, no sooner than three months and 20 days after the notice of default |
When both are running, the loan's calendar sets the date a sale has to beat, because a trustee's sale can come years before the Tax Collector's power to sell. The tax side sets how much more each month of waiting takes from your proceeds. If a notice of default has arrived, ask for the lender's figures in writing this week, and put its dates on the foreclosure timeline beside the tax dates above.
Whether a penalty can be cancelled, or which period applies to a mixed-use parcel, is a question for the Tax Collector's office and, where money turns on it, a California real estate attorney. Shaya is a listing agent and gives neither tax nor legal advice.