Guide 04
10 min read · updated October 4, 2026
A Florida tax deed clears nearly every claim against a parcel. The few it leaves standing are the ones that cost a buyer money: unpaid city and county liens, deed restrictions and, in some cases, a federal tax lien. Right now 2,800 Florida parcels are headed for a tax deed sale across 52 counties, 1,657 of them in the next 30 days. This guide sets out what each deed will clear and what it will not, with each rule quoted from the statute, and how to check a parcel before you bid.
Under section 197.552 of the Florida Statutes, no right, interest, restriction or covenant survives a tax deed except what chapter 197 itself preserves, and chief among those exceptions are unpaid government liens of record.
The rule is one sentence of section 197.552. Except as the chapter provides, "no right, interest, restriction, or other covenant shall survive the issuance of a tax deed" [1]. The same sentence carves out the exception that matters most: "a lien of record held by a municipal or county governmental unit, special district, or community development district, when such lien is not satisfied as of the disbursement of proceeds of sale" survives the deed [2]. Section 197.573 adds restrictions and covenants that run with the land, and federal law adds a third survivor in some cases, the federal tax lien.
The deed itself is strong evidence. It is "prima facie evidence of the regularity of all proceedings from the valuation of the lands to the issuance of the deed, inclusive" [3]. How a Florida tax deed sale works covers those proceedings, from the tax certificate to the auction.
A Florida tax deed extinguishes mortgages, judgment liens, mechanics' liens and other private liens, and the lien for any HOA or condo assessments that came due before the deed.
Private lienholders lose their liens, but not their notice. The tax collector's statement to the clerk lists who must be told of the sale, among them "any lienholder of record who has recorded a lien against the property described in the tax certificate" [4] and "any mortgagee of record if an address appears on the recorded mortgage" [5]. The clerk mails them notice at least 20 days before the sale [6], and "the failure of anyone to receive notice as provided herein shall not affect the validity of the tax deed issued pursuant to the notice" [7].
Their remedy is the surplus: whatever the winning bid exceeds the opening bid by is held by the clerk, and each person notified "has 120 days from the date of the notice to file a written claim with the clerk for the surplus proceeds" [8]. After a Florida tax deed sale covers the surplus in full.
A lien recorded late does not escape. Once the clerk records the notice of tax deed application, "a person acquiring an interest in the property after the tax deed application notice has been recorded is deemed to be on notice of the pending tax deed sale, and no additional notice is required" [9].
HOA and condo assessments. Florida's homeowners' association statute makes a new owner "jointly and severally liable with the previous parcel owner for all unpaid assessments that came due up to the time of transfer of title" [10], and the condominium statute says the same of a unit owner [11]. Florida's Second District Court of Appeal has held that this does not reach a tax deed buyer: under sections 197.552 and 197.573, "any lien for unpaid assessments did not survive the issuance of the tax deed" [12], because a tax deed starts a new title rather than transferring the old one. What survives is the association's right to charge from then on. A covenant "providing a lien for assessments accruing after such tax deed" is one of the covenants that live on [13], so budget for the dues from the day of the deed.
A lien of record held by a city, a county, a special district or a community development district survives the tax deed, to the extent the money from the sale does not pay it off.
These are the liens that catch buyers: code enforcement fines, demolition and lot-clearing charges, special assessments, municipal utility charges and community development district assessments, recorded against the parcel by a local government. Code enforcement is the common one. Fines under section 162.09 can accrue for each day a violation continues, and a certified copy of the fine order "may be recorded in the public records and thereafter shall constitute a lien against the land on which the violation exists" [14].
The sale pays them first. "The clerk shall distribute the surplus to the governmental units for the payment of any lien of record held by a governmental unit against the property" [15], before any private claimant or the former owner. The government has to ask: "A holder of a recorded governmental lien, other than a federal government lien or ad valorem tax lien, must file a request for disbursement of surplus funds within 120 days after the mailing of the notice of surplus funds" [16]. Whatever the surplus does not cover stays with the parcel.
That makes the bid part of the arithmetic. Every dollar bid above the opening bid lands in the surplus, and the surplus pays the government liens first, so a higher bid pays down the very liens that would otherwise pass to the buyer. A buyer can also clear them and be repaid: "The tax deed recipient may directly pay off all liens to governmental units that could otherwise have been requested from surplus funds" [17], and then claim the same amount from the surplus in the lienholder's place.
Deed restrictions and covenants that run with the land survive a Florida tax deed, but covenants that create a debt do not, and forfeiture and reverter rights are destroyed.
Section 197.573 keeps a subdivision's rules in force against the buyer: "the restrictions and covenants shall survive and be enforceable after the issuance of a tax deed" [18]. It covers "the usual restrictions and covenants limiting the use of property" [19], such as the type and placement of buildings and rules against nuisances. It does not protect a covenant that creates a debt or lien, other than a government lien or an association's lien for assessments that accrue after the deed, or one that makes the owner spend money, other than to keep the property tidy or abate a nuisance.
And "all forfeitures, rights of reentry, and reverter rights shall be destroyed and shall not survive to the grantee in the tax deed" [20], so a restriction whose penalty is returning the land to a developer keeps its rule but loses the penalty.
A federal tax lien filed more than 30 days before a Florida tax deed sale survives it unless the IRS was given written notice at least 25 days before the sale, and even a discharged lien leaves the IRS 120 days to redeem.
Federal law, not chapter 197, decides what a tax deed does to a federal tax lien. A sale under a statutory lien "shall, except as otherwise provided, be made subject to and without disturbing such lien or title, if notice of such lien was filed or such title recorded in the place provided by law for such filing or recording more than 30 days before such sale and the United States is not given notice of such sale" [21]. The notice it means must be given "in writing, by registered or certified mail or by personal service, not less than 25 days prior to such sale, to the Secretary" [22]. Florida's own notice to lienholders needs only 20 days [6], so whether the IRS got its 25 is worth checking in the clerk's file.
A proper notice does not end the matter. Where real property is sold to satisfy a lien ahead of the United States, "the Secretary may redeem such property within the period of 120 days from the date of such sale or the period allowable for redemption under local law, whichever is longer" [23]. Until those 120 days pass, a parcel sold over a federal tax lien is not certainly yours.
The tax deed buyer is entitled to immediate possession, enforceable by a writ of assistance, and four years after the deed the former owner can no longer sue over it.
The grantee of a tax deed "shall be entitled to the immediate possession of the lands described in the deed" [24], and if an occupant refuses, the buyer can apply to the circuit court for a writ of assistance on five days' notice. The deed's protection hardens with time: "When a tax deed has been issued to any person under s. 197.552 for 4 years, no action shall be brought by the former owner of the property or any claimant under the former owner" [25]. The bar does not apply where the former owner stays in actual possession for a year after the deed and before the buyer sues to eject them. Until those four years pass, title insurers often want a quiet title action before they will insure, and that cost belongs in the bid.
A parcel nobody bids on goes on the clerk's list of lands available for taxes, and if it is still unsold three years after the sale, it escheats to the county with every lien canceled.
A buyer from the list of lands available for taxes pays the opening bid and gets a tax deed like any other, with the same survivors. The one route that clears everything is escheat to the county: three years after the sale, "all tax certificates, accrued taxes, and liens of any nature against the property shall be deemed canceled as a matter of law and of no further legal force and effect" [26].
Read the clerk's tax deed file for who was notified, search the official records and the local governments for liens, look for a federal tax lien against the owner, and price in the association, the homestead add-on and quiet title.
The parcels going to sale are on the Florida tax deed sales by county pages, the busiest of them Duval County, Putnam County, Charlotte County and Polk County, and every sale day is on the sale calendar. Reading a notice of application for tax deed shows what each notice tells you about the parcel before you start.
Yes. A mortgage is a private lien, and under section 197.552 of the Florida Statutes no lien survives the issuance of a tax deed except the government liens chapter 197 names. The mortgagee of record is notified before the sale and can claim from any surplus the sale produces.
The lien for assessments that came due before the deed does not. Florida's Second District Court of Appeal held in Cricket Properties v. Nassau Pointe at Heritage Isles (2013) that an association's lien for unpaid assessments did not survive the tax deed, and that because a tax deed starts a new title rather than transferring the old one, the statute making new owners liable for a previous owner's unpaid assessments does not reach a tax deed buyer. The association's right to charge future assessments does survive, so the buyer owes assessments from the deed on.
A code enforcement lien recorded by a city or county survives to the extent the sale's surplus does not pay it. A recorded fine order becomes a lien on the land, and section 197.552 keeps liens of record held by a municipal or county governmental unit alive until they are satisfied from the sale proceeds. The clerk pays government liens from the surplus first, if the government asks within 120 days of the surplus notice.
It can. Under 26 U.S.C. section 7425, a sale under a statutory lien leaves a federal tax lien in place if notice of the lien was filed more than 30 days before the sale and the IRS was not given written notice of the sale at least 25 days before it. Even when the lien is discharged, the IRS may redeem the property within 120 days of the sale.
For four years. Section 95.192 bars any action by the former owner, or anyone claiming under the former owner, once a tax deed has been issued for four years, unless the former owner stayed in actual possession for a year after the deed and before the buyer sued to eject them. Until then the deed is prima facie evidence that the proceedings were regular, but it can be attacked, which is why title insurers often want a quiet title action before they will insure.
The parcel goes on the clerk's list of lands available for taxes, where anyone can buy it for the opening bid and takes a tax deed like any other. If it is still unsold three years after the sale date, it escheats to the county, and every tax certificate, accrued tax and lien of any nature against it is canceled by law.
General information about Florida procedure, not legal advice. Each clerk sets its own sale terms, and statutes change; confirm with the clerk of court before bidding.