Florida tax deed sales

How a Florida tax deed sale works

When a Florida property tax bill goes unpaid, the county tax collector sells a tax certificate for it at an annual auction. The certificate holder pays the tax and earns interest; the owner can clear it at any time by paying the tax collector. Once two years have passed from April 1 of the year the certificate was issued, the holder may apply for a tax deed.

The application puts the parcel on the clerk of court’s sale calendar. The clerk publishes a notice of application for tax deed once a week for four weeks, naming the parcel, the certificate, the owner of record and the sale date, and sells the parcel to the highest bidder above the opening bid — online in most counties. Until the deed issues, the owner can still redeem and cancel the sale, which is why a parcel listed here can drop off a clerk’s auction list without warning.

The vocabulary is defined in the glossary; how the notices become the records on this page is in the methodology.