Massachusetts Instrument of Taking: Redemption and Foreclosure

A Massachusetts Instrument of Taking is the document a city or town records at the Registry of Deeds to transfer legal title of a tax-delinquent property to the municipality under Chapter 60 of the General Laws. You keep physical possession and can continue living in the home, but the town now holds title subject to your right to redeem by paying what you owe. If you never redeem, the municipality can go to Land Court and extinguish that right permanently.

What Changes the Moment It Is Recorded

Recording shifts legal title to the municipality and opens what the treasurer calls a tax title account: a running ledger of the original tax debt, costs, and interest. The recorded instrument functions as a lien that outranks almost every other claim against the property, including a private mortgage. In practice, that cloud on the record stops you from refinancing or selling with a clean title until the account is cleared. Lenders and title companies will not work around an unresolved tax taking.

You still live there. You still owe current-year taxes. And the clock on redemption is already running.

The Notice That Should Have Come First

A taking is only valid if the collector followed a strict notification sequence, so the first thing to check is whether you received proper notice. The process begins with a formal demand for the overdue tax. Fourteen days after that demand, the collector gains authority to take the land, but only after sending a separate fourteen-day notice of intent to take.¹

For residential property (Class One under Chapter 59), the collector must mail the notice to your last known address, post it on the property itself, and publish it on the municipal website.¹ Notice must also be posted in at least two public places fourteen days before the taking is executed. Non-residential property follows a different service rule.

The notice itself has to be in plain language drafted by the Department of Revenue and must carry a statement in the seven most commonly spoken languages in the Commonwealth telling recipients the document affects important legal rights. For residential property, the notice must also spell out your right to redeem, the components of the redemption amount, the earliest date a foreclosure petition can be filed, that the tax title could be sold to a private purchaser, and (under the 2024 reforms) that after a foreclosure sale you are entitled to any excess equity.¹ A notice that skips any of these pieces is a potential ground for challenging the taking.

What the Instrument Itself Must Say

Section 54 lists what has to appear on the document. It must identify the person or entity to whom the tax was assessed and give a substantially accurate description of each parcel being taken.² The statute says “substantially accurate,” not perfect; a minor imprecision will not necessarily void the instrument, but a description that cannot reasonably identify the parcel invites challenge.

The document must also state the cause of the taking, the amount of unpaid tax, and the incidental expenses and costs accrued through the date of the taking.² Errors in the dollar amounts or the property identification are the most common grounds for attacking a taking later on. Pull your copy from the registry and read every line against your deed and your tax bills.

One hard deadline sits inside the statute: the instrument is void unless it is recorded at the appropriate Registry of Deeds within sixty days of the date of taking.² Miss that window and the municipality has to start over with a fresh demand and notice sequence.

How the Balance Grows

Interest on tax title accounts was reduced from 16 percent to 8 percent per year for any tax title entered on or after November 1, 2024, under the 2024 tax title reform legislation. Properties already in tax title before that date keep accruing at the older 16 percent rate.³

The account does not freeze after the initial taking. If you continue to miss property taxes in later years, those unpaid amounts get folded in. The collector certifies each year’s unpaid tax to the treasurer no later than September 1 of the year following assessment, and the treasurer adds it to the existing tax title account. So the payoff climbs from two directions at once: interest on what is already there, plus every new year of taxes you miss.

Redeeming the Property

Anyone with an interest in the property can redeem it at any time before the municipality files a foreclosure petition in Land Court. That includes the owner, an heir, or a mortgage holder. Redemption means paying the treasurer the full tax title account balance: the original taxes with interest at 8 percent (or 16 percent for pre-November 2024 takings), interest on each subsequently certified tax, and all charges lawfully added to the account.⁴ Add a title examination fee of up to three dollars and the actual cost of recording the original instrument of taking.

Once the treasurer gets paid in full, the municipality must execute and deliver an instrument of redemption acknowledging that the account is satisfied.⁵ You then need to record that instrument at the Registry of Deeds yourself. The tax title cloud stays visible on your record until you do.

Paying in Installments

Section 62 does not require a single lump sum. You can pay in installments as long as each installment covers all interest owed through the date of payment.⁴ When the treasurer accepts an installment, the treasurer may extend the period in which no foreclosure petition can be filed by up to two additional years beyond the standard waiting period. The extension gets noted on the account, and you receive a written statement confirming it.

If a Taking Has Not Happened Yet

If you are behind but no taking has been executed, you can still make partial payments to the collector. Each payment must be at least 10 percent of the total tax and no less than ten dollars.⁶ Partial payments are available until the collector prepares the advertisement for the taking or certifies the tax under Section 61. These payments reduce the principal and buy time; they do not cancel the original demand or stop future collection on the remaining balance.

When the Municipality Can Foreclose

Under Section 65, whoever holds the tax title can file a foreclosure petition in Massachusetts Land Court after twelve months from the date of the taking.⁷ Two situations allow earlier filing: when buildings on the property have been certified as abandoned, or when the redemption amount exceeds the property’s assessed value. The holder can also file at any time with the record owner’s written consent.

The petition is the point of no return for your redemption rights. If you do not file an answer, the court may enter a default judgment. A successful foreclosure permanently eliminates the right of redemption and transfers title to the municipality or tax title holder free and clear.

Surplus Equity After a Foreclosure Sale

Massachusetts changed the equity rule in 2024, in part in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Tyler v. Hennepin County, which held that governments cannot keep surplus equity from a tax foreclosure sale beyond the debt owed. Under the revised law, if the municipality forecloses and sells the property, any proceeds above the tax debt must be returned to the former owner.³ Recovering that surplus still requires you to act; the money does not arrive on its own.

1
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c60 Section 53
2
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 60 Section 54 – Instrument of Taking; Form; Contents; Effect
3
Mass.gov. Ask DLS: Tax Title Reform – Part 2
4
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Code Chapter 60 Section 62 – Land Taken or Sold for Taxes; Redemption
5
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c60 Section 62
6
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 60, Section 22
7
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c60 Section 65