New York Surplus Funds Laws
How mortgage foreclosure surplus, tax sale surplus and unclaimed funds work in New York.
Mortgage foreclosure surplus
N.Y. Real Prop. Acts. Law (RPAPL) §§ 1354(4), 1361 and 1362 govern mortgage foreclosure surplus: the sale officer deposits it with the court and the court determines competing claims and orders payment. Under RPAPL § 1361(1), file a written notice of surplus claim before confirmation of the sale report. Section 1361(2) provides for a distribution motion at confirmation or within three months afterward. These are cash-surplus procedures, not redemption periods.
Tax sale surplus
N.Y. Real Prop. Tax Law (RPTL) §§ 1195–1197, added in 2024, govern surplus after Article 11 tax foreclosure; § 1196 requires calculation and court deposit, and § 1197 governs claims. Section 1135 also permits preconfirmation claim notices. File the tax-surplus notice before confirmation under RPTL § 1135. For residential property, § 1197(4) keeps the proceeding open at least three years after confirmation if no former homeowner has claimed; a claim in that interval is treated as timely. Case-specific orders and older-sale rules require review.
Unclaimed funds
New York Abandoned Property Law, especially § 1406, governs claims for abandoned property paid to the State Comptroller. Section 1406 allows general claims to the Comptroller without a fixed initial filing cutoff, though special categories and judicial escheat proceedings can have different limits. Tax-foreclosure surplus under RPTL § 1197 follows its own rules.
Statute text
Links to the statutes referenced in our research. These may be third-party copies of older code editions, so check the current official code before relying on them.
