City and County Unclaimed Money: The Local Lists the State Never Shows
Cities and counties hold their own unclaimed money — uncashed vendor and payroll checks, and property-tax refunds — that often never reaches your state’s unclaimed property database. So checking your state isn’t enough: search your city and county too. It’s free, and some local funds have deadlines the state doesn’t.
Most guides tell you to search your state unclaimed property site — and you should. But a whole layer of money sits one level down, with cities and counties, and it frequently never makes it into the state database at all. If you only search the state, you can walk right past it.
Why local money never reaches the state
Cities and counties cut a lot of checks: refunds, vendor payments, payroll, court and restitution funds, and property-tax overpayments. When one of those checks is never cashed — a bad address, a closed business, a forgotten refund — the money doesn’t automatically flow to the state unclaimed property office. Many local governments hold it on their own lists under their own rules.
Two things make this worth your time:
- The lists are separate. Local money usually won’t appear on your state site or on MissingMoney.com. You have to look locally.
- Some local funds have deadlines. Unlike most states, which hold property indefinitely, some cities escheat unclaimed money to their own general fund after a short window. The City of San Diego, for example, escheats unclaimed checks to its General Fund about a year after issue under City Charter Section 86 — after that, it’s gone.
Four real examples (with official links)
Every link below is the government’s own site. Searching and claiming are free at all of them.
New York City — unclaimed wage awards
Beyond the New York State Comptroller’s Office of Unclaimed Funds, which holds most lost New York accounts, the New York City Comptroller separately holds unclaimed prevailing-wage awards it recovered for workers underpaid on city contracts. If you did construction or building-service work on an NYC project, check the city list at comptroller.nyc.gov — the money is held until the worker is found.
City of San Diego — unclaimed monies
The City of San Diego’s Department of Finance posts a public unclaimed monies report of uncashed city checks — refunds and vendor payments ranging from a few dollars to tens of thousands. Print and mail the Request for Unclaimed Monies Form. Watch the deadline on the page: under City Charter Section 86, unclaimed checks escheat to the city’s General Fund about a year after issue.
Los Angeles County — property-tax refunds
If you overpaid property taxes — or your lender did, or an assessment was later corrected — Los Angeles County may owe you a refund that never reached you. Check the LA County Treasurer and Tax Collector refund status tool using your Assessor ID Number or bill number.
Cook County (Chicago) — property-tax overpayments
Cook County holds tens of millions of dollars in property-tax overpayment and duplicate-payment refunds — money owed to homeowners who paid twice or paid after an exemption. Search the county’s own tools at the Cook County Treasurer’s Office, which also runs an uncashed-check search.
How to check your own city and county
You don’t need a paid service. In a search engine, try:
"[your city] unclaimed monies"or"[your city] unclaimed checks""[your county] property tax refund"or"[your county] treasurer overpayment refund"
Then confirm you’re on the government’s own site — a .gov or the official county treasurer domain — before you enter anything. The government never charges you to return your own money.
And still search the state
Local lists are the part people miss, but the biggest pools are usually at the state level. Search your state unclaimed property guide too, and follow the full free checklist in how to find unclaimed money in your name for free. If a company offers to recover a property-tax refund for a cut, read the finder-fee guide first — you can almost always do it yourself for nothing.
Common questions
New York City has two separate pools. The New York State Comptroller holds most lost accounts and checks at osc.ny.gov/unclaimed-funds, and the New York City Comptroller separately holds unclaimed prevailing-wage awards for workers at comptroller.nyc.gov/wages. Search both — they don't share data, and both are free.
Yes. The City of San Diego posts its own unclaimed monies report at sandiego.gov/finance/unclaimed for uncashed city checks. It's free to claim, but San Diego has a hard deadline: under City Charter Section 86, money not claimed within about a year is escheated to the city's General Fund, so check the current deadline on the page.
No. They're separate lists with separate rules. A city or county often holds its own uncashed vendor checks, payroll checks, and property-tax refunds that never get reported to the state database. Always search your state site and your city or county — money on one won't show up on the other.
No. Every official city and county claim is free. Finders sometimes target property-tax refund lists, but you can file the same claim yourself for free — see our finder-fee guide.
This guide is maintained by the Unclaimed Guide Editorial Team and reviewed each quarter. Found something out of date? Tell us and we’ll fix it, or check the corrections log.