Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: Massachusetts Clause 41A requires your mortgage holder’s written consent before the town will grant the deferral at all, charges up to 8% interest, and its lien is only expressly ranked against reverse mortgages, which it sits behind; an ordinary first mortgage’s priority is never addressed.
What Clause 41A requires, including a step most states skip
Massachusetts General Laws c. 59, §5, Clause 41A opens to homeowners 65 or older who have been domiciled in the Commonwealth for 10 years and owned and occupied the home for 5, with gross receipts capped at $20,000 by default, though towns may vote a higher ceiling now pegged to the state’s own annually-adjusted Circuit Breaker income limit rather than a fixed dollar figure. What sets Massachusetts apart procedurally is a mandatory consent step: the tax deferral and recovery agreement is not valid unless any joint owner or mortgage holder on the property has given written prior approval for it, so the mortgage lender is a party to the deal from the start rather than an afterthought.
8% interest, and a lien ranked only against reverse mortgages
Interest accrues at 8% a year, or a lower rate if the town’s legislative body votes one, while the deferral is outstanding; after a conveyance or death the rate shifts to the general municipal-lien rate, which is also 8%. On lien priority, Massachusetts answers only one part of the question: the statute states plainly that a Clause 41A lien is subsequent to any lien securing a reverse mortgage, except a shared-appreciation instrument, so it sits behind a reverse mortgage by design. For an ordinary first mortgage, neither Clause 41A nor the general municipal-lien statute it cross-references states a priority ranking at all; which is exactly why the written-consent requirement matters so much in Massachusetts: the mortgage holder’s leverage comes from having to agree up front, not from any statutory priority rule protecting them afterward.
When it comes due, and how to apply
No sale or transfer of the property can be completed until the deferred taxes and interest are paid; at death, the balance is recovered from the owner’s estate, though a surviving spouse may re-execute the agreement and continue the deferral for their own life. The total deferred amount is capped at 50% of the owner’s share of the property’s fair cash value. Applications are due on the same deadline as the general property-tax exemption: April 1 of the tax year, or three months after the bill is sent, whichever is later; filed with the local board of assessors alongside the signed, mortgagee-consented deferral and recovery agreement.
Massachusetts’s broader senior property-tax picture, covering exemptions, freezes and circuit-breaker credits, not just the deferral: property tax breaks for seniors in Massachusetts.
How every state’s programme compares: property tax relief for seniors by state. What a deferral means in general, and who it catches out: the property-tax deferral lien trap.
Statutory text read at each state’s own legislature, revisor, or revenue agency this session. General information, not tax or legal advice; rates, caps and thresholds change most years and a county or state agency retains the final say on your own application.