State Foreclosure Law Library

arkansas

22 min read

Arkansas — Tax & Mortgage Foreclosure

Legal information, not legal advice. Verify against the cited primary sources before acting. Last verified: 2026-06-01.

Arkansas is a state-centralized tax-deed jurisdiction and is structurally unusual: county collectors do not run the tax sale. Instead, after one year of delinquency the county certifies the parcel to the State, title vests in the State of Arkansas in care of the Commissioner of State Lands (COSL), and COSL — not the county — later sells the parcel at a public tax-delinquent-property auction (Ark. Code § 26-37-101). The buyer receives a limited warranty deed, not a lien certificate. The owner’s right of redemption runs from certification up until 4 p.m. on the last business day before the sale — a major change effective mid-2023 that eliminated the old 10-business-day post-sale redemption window. Surplus (“excess proceeds”) above taxes/penalties/interest/costs belongs to the former owner, which puts Arkansas largely in line with tyler-v-hennepin-county, though its 2-year escheat-to-county of unclaimed excess proceeds is a residual equity-forfeiture concern. Third-party overage-recovery agents are expressly permitted but capped at a 10% fee by COSL rule.

0. Identity & Classification

1. Tax Sale Mechanics

2. Right of Redemption → see right-of-redemption

3. Surplus / Excess Proceeds → see surplus-funds, third-party-recovery-rules

4. Mortgage Foreclosure

  • Process: both, but non-judicial power-of-sale under the Statutory Foreclosure Act of 1987 (Ark. Code § 18-50-101 et seq.) is standard; judicial foreclosure also available. — https://law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/title-18/subtitle-4/chapter-50/section-18-50-104/
  • Timeline: a pre-foreclosure information packet must be sent at least 10 days before initiating foreclosure (§ 18-50-103); the notice of default and intention to sell is recorded, mailed to the mortgagor within 30 days of recording by certified + first-class mail, and published once a week for 4 consecutive weeks before sale; sale generally no sooner than ~60 days after recording the notice. — Ark. Code §§ 18-50-103, 18-50-104, 18-50-105 — https://thewilsonlawfirm.com/arkansas-statutory-foreclosures-an-abundance-of-notice/
  • Reinstatement right: the mortgagor may cure/reinstate by paying the arrearage + costs before the sale (statutory right to pay the default and stop the sale under the Act). needs_verification for the exact reinstatement subsection and deadline. — Ark. Code § 18-50-101 et seq.
  • Redemption after sale: None following a non-judicial statutory foreclosure — Arkansas provides no post-sale statutory redemption after a power-of-sale foreclosure. (A statutory right of redemption can exist in judicial foreclosures of certain mortgages absent waiver; commonly waived in modern deeds of trust.) needs_verification for the judicial-foreclosure redemption cite. — https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/summary-arkansas-foreclosure-laws.html
  • Deficiency judgment: allowed, but capped — the deficiency may not exceed the lesser of (a) total indebtedness (with post-sale interest, costs, trustee/attorney fees) minus the fair market value of the property, or (b) total indebtedness minus the sale price. Suit must be brought within 12 months of the non-judicial sale; plaintiff bears the burden of proving debt, sale price, and FMV. — Ark. Code § 18-50-112 — https://law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/title-18/subtitle-4/chapter-50/section-18-50-112/
  • Surplus distribution (mortgage): proceeds of the foreclosure sale are applied to costs of sale, then the secured debt, then junior lienholders by priority, then the borrower. — Ark. Code § 18-50-109 — https://law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/title-18/subtitle-4/chapter-50/section-18-50-104/
  • Sale officer: trustee or attorney-in-fact / mortgagee conducting the power-of-sale auction (not a sheriff, in the non-judicial path). — Ark. Code § 18-50-104, § 18-50-106 — https://thewilsonlawfirm.com/arkansas-statutory-foreclosures-an-abundance-of-notice/

5. Sale Procedure Playbooks

6. Due Process & Notice → see due-process-notice

7. Title & Marketability

  • Deed warranty level: limited warranty deed — conveys only the rights, title, and interest the State acquired through tax forfeiture; COSL does not insure or warrant clear/marketable title. — https://cosl.org/Home/Buyers
  • Marketable immediately? No. Title is not marketable on issuance. — § 18-12-609; https://cosl.org/Home/Buyers
  • Quiet title required? Practically yes — in most cases the purchaser must file a quiet-title / confirmation action to obtain marketable, insurable fee simple. — Ark. Code § 18-12-609(b); https://cosl.org/Home/Buyers
  • SOL to challenge deed / ripening: an action contesting the deed’s validity must be filed within 90 days of conveyance (§ 26-37-203, Act 1231 of 2013). Independently, title becomes marketable after 15 years if the tax deed has been of record 15+ years, taxes paid throughout, no adverse-possession claim filed, and the underlying taxes were genuinely unpaid (§ 18-12-609); a judicial quiet-title can establish marketability sooner and cuts off further redemption/challenge. — https://law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/title-18/subtitle-2/chapter-12/subchapter-6/section-18-12-609/
  • Title insurance availability: generally unavailable until a quiet-title decree (or the 15-year period) cures the limited warranty deed. needs_verification for underwriter specifics.
  • Common defects: defective/insufficient statutory notice (wrong parcel number; certified mail returned unclaimed without follow-up — voids the sale); unresolved redemption-disability tolling; lurking junior interests not given § 26-37-301 notice.

8. Case Law (real, verified)

CaseYearTopicHolding (plain English)Source
jones-v-flowers (547 U.S. 220; AR predecessor 352 Ark. 39, 98 S.W.3d 405)2006due_process, sale_procedureWhen the State’s certified-mail notice of a tax sale is returned “unclaimed,” due process requires the State to take additional reasonable steps (e.g., regular mail, posting) to notify the owner before selling, if practicable. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Arkansas Supreme Court; the COSL sale of Jones’s home violated due process.https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/547/220/
tsann-kuen-v-campbell (355 Ark. 110, 129 S.W.3d 822)2003due_process, redemptionArk. Code § 26-37-301’s notice scheme satisfies due process for nonresident owners; reinforces that strict compliance with the statutory notice is required before an owner is deprived of property.https://arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=/Assembly/Meeting+Attachments/040/26045/D.1.a.+COSL+Rules+and+Relevant+Acts.pdf (citation search-verified; opinion text not directly retrieved)
pulaski-choice-v-villa-creek (2010 Ark. 91, 362 S.W.3d 882)2010sale_procedure, due_processStatutory publication notice of a tax-delinquent-land sale requires strict compliance; a published notice with an incorrect parcel number fails § 26-37-201(b)(3) and renders the tax sale and deed void.https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/pulaski-choice-l-l-888971887
payton-v-blake (362 Ark. 538, 210 S.W.3d 74)2005sale_procedure, redemptionAddressed the adequacy of the property description / parcel identification in tax-sale notice; an abbreviated legal description may suffice in some circumstances — later distinguished in Pulaski Choice where the parcel number itself was wrong.https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/pulaski-choice-l-l-888971887 (citation confirmed via Pulaski Choice; opinion text not directly retrieved)
tyler-v-hennepin-county (598 U.S. 631)2023surplus, due_processRetaining tax-sale surplus beyond the tax debt is an unconstitutional taking. Arkansas’s § 26-37-205 returns excess proceeds to the former owner (largely compliant), but its 2-year escheat-to-county of unclaimed surplus is the residual tension.https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/22-166_8n59.pdf

Adversarial-verification note on the reporter citations: Jones v. Flowers (547 U.S. 220, 2006) and its AR predecessor (98 S.W.3d 405) are confirmed via the U.S. Supreme Court / Justia record (directly relevant Arkansas tax-sale case). Pulaski Choice (2010 Ark. 91, 362 S.W.3d 882) and the Payton v. Blake citation (362 Ark. 538, 210 S.W.3d 74) are confirmed via the vLex case record for Pulaski Choice. Tsann Kuen (355 Ark. 110, 129 S.W.3d 822, 2003) citation is search-verified but its opinion text was not directly fetched — flagged in needs_verification rather than asserted as fully self-verified. Statutory holdings are backed by the directly-retrieved COSL Rules & Relevant Acts PDF (HB1263/2023 amendatory text) and Justia code pages.

9. Edge Cases (state-specific notes)

10. Operations

  • Where records live: Commissioner of State Lands (certification lists, auction catalogs, redemption petitions, excess-proceeds claims, deeds); county circuit clerk (recorded redemption/limited-warranty deeds, quiet-title decrees); county collector (pre-certification delinquency); DFA (certificates of indebtedness).
  • Public portals: COSL main site https://cosl.org/ ; buyers/auction info https://cosl.org/Home/Buyers ; online post-auction bidding auction.cosl.org ; excess-proceeds search https://cosl.org/Home/Excess/ and https://portal.arkansas.gov/service/search-excess-proceeds/ ; COSL Rules & Relevant Acts (PDF) https://arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=/Assembly/Meeting+Attachments/040/26045/D.1.a.+COSL+Rules+and+Relevant+Acts.pdf ; 26 CAR Part 400 rules https://codeofarrules.arkansas.gov/ .
  • Typical costs & timelines: redemption = taxes + 10%/yr interest + 10%/yr penalty + costs; parcel cannot be sold until 1 yr after certification; redemption closes 4 p.m. last business day before sale; deed-challenge SOL 90 days; marketable title by quiet-title or 15 years (§ 18-12-609); excess proceeds claimable for 2 years (post-7/1/2018) before escheat to county.
  • Key agencies: Commissioner of State Lands; county collector; county circuit clerk; Department of Finance and Administration; (mortgage) trustees/foreclosure counsel.
  • Useful forms: COSL petition to redeem (paper or online at cosl.org); COSL excess-proceeds claim packet (claim form, deed of release, releases & indemnification, W-9, vesting deed, proof of mail, IDs); third-party agent contract (≤10% fee) + third-party release.

11. Meta

Legal information, not legal advice. This page summarizes Arkansas tax and mortgage foreclosure law from primary sources as of the last_verified date. Law changes (Arkansas materially overhauled its tax-sale redemption timing in 2023) and county practice varies; verify against the current Arkansas Code, the Commissioner of State Lands rules, and counsel before acting. Last verified: 2026-06-01.

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