San Bernardino County tax-defaulted property

Every California county starts the same statutory clock on July 1, and for most property it runs five years to the county’s power to sell. We cover that clock step by step here. What differs is what each county publishes, what it ends up auctioning, and how it runs the sale.

The two lists San Bernardino County publishes

San Bernardino’s Tax Collector has published its defaulted property as free open data since July 2025, in two sets: bills more than five years in default, refreshed on the 1st of each month, and bills five years in default or newer, refreshed every Sunday. The current year’s overdue bills are in neither. The five-year set is the pool the county can take to its annual tax sale, and it is the San Bernardino list Lispend carries.

What San Bernardino County actually auctions

San Bernardino’s Board of Supervisors authorizes each tax sale by resolution, months ahead. On March 10, 2026 it approved an internet auction beginning on or after July 11, 2026, for property tax-defaulted five or more years. The minimum bid starts at the amount needed to redeem, plus the costs of the sale such as advertising and recording and any property tax postponement balance, and any unsold parcel can be re-offered at a follow-up sale within 90 days, at a lower minimum if the Tax Collector sees fit.

The housing behind the list

In the Census Bureau’s 2020-2024 American Community Survey, San Bernardino County had 743,886 homes, 62 percent of its occupied homes were lived in by their owners, the median owner-occupied home was valued at $505,000, and the median home was built in 1983. That is well under San Diego County’s $854,700 in the same survey, so price every offer against San Bernardino values, not coastal ones.

How San Bernardino County runs its tax sale

San Bernardino’s Tax Collector told its Board in 2023 that it tries to reach owners personally, not just by mail: every year, at delinquency, at default and again before a tax sale, including a visit in person to improved properties, with written notice served only when that contact fails. That is on top of the notices state law already requires before any sale.

What the owner can still do

An owner can redeem in full until the close of business on the last business day before the sale, and before the county’s power to sell arises can stop the clock with a state installment plan. If the property does sell, San Bernardino’s own policy on excess proceeds lets the Tax Collector extend the one-year claim deadline by two 30-day periods for good cause, or by up to three years if the money has not been paid out and there is good cause for the delay, such as fraud.

What to do differently here

Assume the owner has already heard from the county, more than once and, for a house, possibly at the front door. Opening as if you are breaking the news costs you the conversation. Open instead with what they can still do before the county sells, and what a sale on their own terms keeps that an auction would not. On the five-year list that window is short, so a clear, fast answer matters more than a high number.

Sources

Last verified 2026-09-19. County sale details change from year to year, so check the county’s own notice before you bid. General information, not legal advice.

Keep going

How California’s tax-default clock works How a California foreclosure works California counties we cover Making first contact

See San Bernardino County tax-defaulted property

Both lists, in the same place as the county’s other distressed property.

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