Tax delinquency records in the United States are updated every year by the County Assessor. The timing and overall process can vary in each county or state but it generally follows this process:
Property taxes are assessed annually. Property owners receive a bill with an amount due and due date for the tax.
Note: It is typical for owners to receive this bill near the end of the tax year for which they will be paying. Oftentimes the due date will be the end of the tax year (ex. Dec. 31st) or several months into the next calendar year (ex. 2023 property taxes due by March 31st, 2024).
If the property tax is not paid by a certain date (this is the part that most varies by county), the property taxes will be considered delinquent.
The county assessor records and updates the delinquency status in the county database.
Our data provider provides us with a list of Tax Delinquents daily. The list includes all properties with any form of delinquency, whether they are new delinquencies that have occurred since the previous year or ongoing delinquencies that have not been resolved.
A common question regarding tax delinquency data is whether updates occur throughout the year.
Updates to delinquency status are highly dependent on the Annual Assessor update. For instance, a property owner fails to pay his taxes by the due date, say January 1st, and is recorded as tax delinquent on January 15th. If he then pays the owed taxes in April, the delinquency status will only be updated if the payment was made before the county closed their books for that tax year.
If the payment is made after the books are closed, the delinquency status will not be updated until the next Annual Assessor update. For example, if a payment is made in April but the books closed in March, the record will reflect the updated status in the following March.