How to stop a property tax sale
If your municipality has registered a tax-arrears certificate against your home — or worse, set a tax-sale date — the situation is serious but usually not hopeless. A tax sale is the end of a defined process, and until it completes there are concrete steps that can stop it. The most reliable, for a homeowner with equity, is to pay the arrears in full, which redeems the account and cancels the certificate.
This guide walks through the realistic ways to stop a tax sale, with a focus on the one most homeowners use: financing the payout with a mortgage against their equity. For the service, see our property tax arrears mortgage page. Timelines and procedures vary by province and municipality — this is general information, not legal advice; confirm your situation with your municipality and a lawyer.
First, get the exact numbers and dates
You can’t plan against a deadline you haven’t confirmed. Before anything else, get from your municipality: the full amount owing to redeem (base taxes plus penalty and interest, which grows monthly), whether a tax-arrears certificate has been registered, and the redemption deadline or any scheduled tax-sale date. In Ontario, registration of a certificate opens a redemption period (about one year) to pay everything owing before a sale can proceed.
These three facts — the amount, the certificate status, and the date — determine every option below and how much time you have to execute. Get them in writing, and note that the redemption amount is a moving target that rises with time, so confirm it close to when you plan to pay.
Option 1: Pay the arrears in full (redeem)
The cleanest way to stop a tax sale is to redeem — pay the entire amount owing to the municipality. Once the account is paid in full within the redemption period, the certificate is cancelled and the sale process stops. Partial payments generally don’t redeem the account or reliably stop the process, so the goal is a zero balance.
If you have the cash, this is straightforward. Most homeowners in this situation don’t have a lump sum sitting idle — which is where financing comes in.
Option 2: Refinance or use a second mortgage to fund the payout
If you have equity but not cash, a mortgage against your home funds the redemption. Because A-lenders generally won’t refinance a property with arrears or a certificate on title, this is usually a B-lender or private deal. The new financing is sized to cover the full arrears (plus penalty, interest and costs); at closing your lawyer pays the municipality directly, the account is brought current, and the certificate is discharged.
You can often keep your existing first mortgage in place and slot a second mortgage behind it to fund just the arrears — cheaper than breaking a low first rate. Where a deadline is close, a private lender that funds in days is often the realistic option. Qualifying is equity-first (generally up to ~80% loan-to-value at alt-A, or 65–75% on private, illustrative and subject to lender/file). See property tax arrears mortgage.
Option 3: Sell on your own terms (if financing isn't possible)
If you can’t redeem and can’t finance the payout — for example, limited equity or no lender fit — selling the property yourself before a tax sale usually preserves far more of your equity than a municipal tax sale would. A private sale lets you control the price and timing and pay the arrears from the proceeds, rather than having the municipality sell to recover what it’s owed.
Even here, a short-term bridge can sometimes buy the time to sell properly rather than in a rush. The point is that a tax sale is rarely the only exit — but the alternatives require acting before the deadline, not after.
Act early — time is the biggest lever
Every option above gets cheaper and more available the more time you have. Early in the redemption window you may qualify for a lower-cost alt-A refinance or a proper sale; days before a sale, your only realistic option may be fast (and costlier) private capital. No one can honestly guarantee a rescue closes in time sight-unseen — it depends on your equity, the property, title, legal steps and the time remaining — but acting the day you learn of a certificate or a date, rather than the week of the sale, is the single biggest factor in your control.
Mortgage Squad Advisors (FSRA #13737) arranges equity-based financing to redeem tax arrears, coordinates the payout with your lawyer, and discloses every fee up front. Start on our property tax arrears mortgage page, or get a confidential assessment — no credit pull to begin. General information only; confirm legal specifics with a licensed professional.