Selling a Florida House With Unpaid Property Taxes or Liens

Unpaid taxes and recorded liens do not stop a sale. They get paid out of the closing, like a mortgage does. What they do is reduce what reaches the seller, and — in the case of property taxes — start a clock that eventually ends in someone else owning the house.

Sources verified: September 27, 2026

This is general information, not legal advice.

This page explains the order those claims get paid in, how long each one lasts, and where the real deadlines are.

Property taxes outrank everything

This is the single most important thing to understand, because it reverses the intuition that the mortgage comes first.

Florida Statute 197.122(1) provides that "all taxes imposed pursuant to the State Constitution and laws of this state shall be a first lien, superior to all other liens, on any property against which the taxes have been assessed and shall continue in full force from January 1 of the year the taxes were levied until discharged by payment or until barred under chapter 95."

The same subsection puts the burden squarely on the owner: "All owners of property are held to know that taxes are due and payable annually and are responsible for ascertaining the amount of current and delinquent taxes and paying them before April 1 of the year following the year in which taxes are assessed."

Not receiving a bill is not a defense, and a first lien superior to all other liens means superior to the mortgage.

The dates

Florida Statute 197.333 sets the timetable: "All taxes shall be due and payable on November 1 of each year or as soon thereafter as the certified tax roll is received by the tax collector. Taxes shall become delinquent on April 1 following the year in which they are assessed or immediately after 60 days have expired from the mailing of the original tax notice, whichever is later."

Once delinquent, the interest is significant. Florida Statute 197.172(1) provides that "real property taxes shall bear interest at the rate of 18 percent per year from the date of delinquency until a certificate is sold, except that the minimum charge for delinquent taxes paid prior to the sale of a tax certificate shall be 3 percent." Florida Statute 197.172(2) caps the rate on a certificate at "18 percent per year."

Eighteen percent is not a penalty that can be negotiated down. It accrues.

What a tax certificate is, and why it is not yet a disaster

When taxes go unpaid, the county does not take the house. It sells the debt.

Florida Statute 197.102(1)(f) defines a tax certificate as "a paper or electronic legal document, representing unpaid delinquent real property taxes, non-ad valorem assessments, including special assessments, interest, and related costs and charges, issued in accordance with this chapter against a specific parcel of real property and becoming a first lien thereon, superior to all other liens, except as provided by s. 197.573(2)."

The timing of the sale comes from Florida Statute 197.402(3), and it is worth quoting because it is usually reported inaccurately as a flat June 1 deadline: "Except as provided in s. 197.432(4), on or before June 1 or the 60th day after the date of delinquency, whichever is later, the tax collector shall advertise once each week for 3 weeks and shall sell tax certificates on all real property having delinquent taxes." The same subsection adds that "if the deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, it is extended to the next working day."

So June 1 is a floor, not a ceiling — the sale happens on or before June 1 or the 60th day after delinquency, whichever is later. Florida Statute 197.432 itself contains no calendar date for the sale at all.

Florida Statute 197.432(1) provides that on the advertised day "the tax collector shall commence the sale of tax certificates on the real property on which taxes have not been paid," continuing "from day to day until each certificate is sold to pay the taxes, interest, costs, and charges." Under Florida Statute 197.432(6), "each certificate shall be awarded to the person who will pay the taxes, interest, costs, and charges and will demand the lowest rate of interest."

Importantly, Florida Statute 197.432(2) confines what the holder can do: "A lien created through the sale of a tax certificate may not be enforced in any manner except as prescribed in this chapter."

So a certificate holder is an investor holding a lien, not an owner. They cannot evict you, and they cannot sell your house on their own initiative. They are waiting.

You can also clear it at any point before the end. Florida Statute 197.472(1) provides that "a person may redeem a tax certificate at any time after the certificate is issued and before a tax deed is issued unless full payment for a tax deed is made to the clerk of the court," by paying "the face amount plus all interest, costs, and charges." Under Florida Statute 197.472(2), a mandatory minimum of "an absolute 5 percent" applies where the earned interest is lower — with one exception written into the same subsection: it "applies to all county-held tax certificates and all individual tax certificates except those with an interest rate bid of zero percent." A certificate bid at zero carries no mandatory minimum.

A certificate does not last forever either. Florida Statute 197.482 provides that "seven years after the date of issuance of a tax certificate, which is the date of the first day of the tax certificate sale as advertised under s. 197.432, if a tax deed has not been applied for, and no other administrative or legal proceeding, including a bankruptcy, has existed of record, the tax certificate is null and void and shall be canceled." The section does not apply to deferred payment tax certificates. Do not plan around that seven years, though — the holder can apply for a tax deed from two years after April 1 of the year of issuance, and most do.

The deadline that actually matters

Here is the one to write down, and it is commonly misstated.

Florida Statute 197.502(1) provides that "the holder of a tax certificate at any time after 2 years have elapsed since April 1 of the year of issuance of the tax certificate and before the cancellation of the certificate, may file the certificate and an application for a tax deed with the tax collector of the county where the property described in the certificate is located."

Read the trigger carefully. It is not two years from when the certificate was issued. It is two years from April 1 of the year of issuance. Depending on when in the year the certificate was sold, that can be materially more or less time than people assume.

Once an application is made, the notice requirements are short. Florida Statute 197.522(1)(a) requires the clerk to notify the listed persons by certified mail, and "such notice shall be mailed at least 20 days prior to the date of sale." Florida Statute 197.522(2)(a) requires the sheriff to notify the legal titleholder of record "at least 20 days prior to the date of sale."

And a warning that matters: Florida Statute 197.522(1)(d) provides that "the failure of anyone to receive notice as provided herein shall not affect the validity of the tax deed issued pursuant to the notice."

Twenty days is not long, and not receiving the letter does not undo the sale. If a tax deed application has been filed against your property, the window to act has largely closed.

Tax deed surplus works differently from foreclosure surplus

If the property does go to tax deed sale and fetches more than the debt, there may be surplus — but the rules are not the same as in a mortgage foreclosure, and conflating the two is a common and expensive error.

Florida Statute 197.582(2)(a) provides that where "the property is purchased for an amount in excess of the statutory bid of the certificateholder, the surplus must be paid over and disbursed by the clerk," with governmental liens of record paid first, and the balance "retained by the clerk for the benefit of persons described in s. 197.522(1)(a)."

The deadline is explicit. Florida Statute 197.582(3): "A person receiving the notice under subsection (2) has 120 days from the date of the notice to file a written claim with the clerk for the surplus proceeds."

Florida Statute 197.582(5) then bars late claims — but with a carve-out worth noting: "Except for claims by a property owner, claims that are not filed on or before close of business on the 120th day after the date of the mailed notice as required by subsection (2), are barred." The same subsection says a person "other than the property owner" who files late "is barred from receiving any disbursement of the surplus funds."

Under Florida Statute 197.582(9), if no claims arrive in the 120-day window, "there is a conclusive presumption that the legal titleholder of record ... is entitled to the surplus funds," and the clerk processes the funds under chapter 717.

Note the contrast with a mortgage foreclosure. There, Florida Statute 45.032 contains no day-count deadline at all — the owner may claim "before the date that the clerk reports it as unclaimed." Here there is a hard 120 days. If you are reading about "surplus funds," check which kind of sale is being discussed.

Other liens, and how long each one lives

Not every recorded lien is still enforceable, and the differences are large.

Construction liens are short-lived. Florida Statute 713.08(5) requires the claim of lien to be recorded "not later than 90 days after the final furnishing of the labor or services or materials by the lienor." Florida Statute 713.22(1) then provides that the lien "does not continue for a longer period than 1 year after the claim of lien has been recorded" unless an enforcement action is commenced within that year. Under Florida Statute 713.22(2), a lienor served with the statutory notice "who fails to institute a suit to enforce his or her lien within 60 days after service of such notice is extinguished automatically."

Code enforcement liens are long-lived. Florida Statute 162.10 provides that no such lien "shall continue for a period longer than 20 years after the certified copy of an order imposing a fine has been recorded," unless an action is commenced within that time. And under Florida Statute 162.09(3), the fine "shall continue to accrue until the violator comes into compliance or until judgment is rendered."

There is a significant protection in the same subsection, though. Florida Statute 162.09(3) provides that "no lien created pursuant to the provisions of this part may be foreclosed on real property which is a homestead under s. 4, Art. X of the State Constitution."

Association assessments transfer with the title. Florida Statute 720.3085(2)(b) makes a homeowners' association parcel 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." Florida Statute 718.116(1)(a) says the same for condominium units, and Florida Statute 718.116(1)(c) requires the person acquiring title to "pay the amount owed to the association within 30 days after transfer of title."

That last point is why a buyer will insist on estoppel figures from the association before closing.

Judgment liens

A money judgment against you is not automatically a lien on your house. It becomes one only by being recorded, and Florida Statute 55.10(1) sets out how: a judgment, order or decree "becomes a lien on real property in any county when a certified copy of it is recorded in the official records or judgment lien record of the county."

The same subsection adds a requirement that is easy to miss and is worth checking on any judgment you find on your title. The judgment must contain "the address of the person who has a lien as a result of such judgment," or an affidavit stating that address must be recorded at the same time. The statute is explicit about the consequence: a judgment "does not become a lien on real property unless the address of the person who has a lien ... is contained in the judgment ... or an affidavit with such address is simultaneously recorded."

On duration, Florida Statute 55.10(1) gives a judgment recorded on or after July 1, 1994 "an initial period of 10 years from the date of the recording." Under Florida Statute 55.10(2) that lien "may be extended for an additional period of 10 years" by rerecording a certified copy before it expires, together with a simultaneous affidavit giving the current address. There is a hard outer limit: Florida Statute 55.10(3) says the lien may not be extended beyond the period in Florida Statute 55.081, and Florida Statute 55.081 provides that no judgment "shall be a lien upon real or personal property within the state after the expiration of 20 years from the date of the entry of such judgment."

Read those two together, because they are not the same clock. The 10 years run from recording; the 20-year ceiling runs from entry of the judgment. A creditor who waited years to record gets less than twenty years of lien, not more.

And the protection that matters most: a judgment lien does not attach to homestead. Article X, Section 4(a) of the Florida Constitution exempts homestead "from forced sale under process of any court," and says "no judgment, decree or execution shall be a lien thereon," subject to three exceptions it names — taxes and assessments on the property, obligations contracted for its purchase, improvement or repair, and obligations contracted for labor performed on it. The exemption is limited by area rather than value: one-half acre inside a municipality, up to 160 contiguous acres outside one.

So an ordinary judgment creditor — a credit card, a medical bill, a car deficiency — does not get a lien on your Florida homestead. A contractor who improved the property, or the taxing authority, is in a different category.

How this plays out at a closing

The practical sequence at a sale is straightforward once the priorities are clear.

Delinquent taxes and any outstanding tax certificates are paid first, because Florida Statute 197.122(1) makes them a first lien. The mortgage payoff comes next. Recorded liens are then paid or released according to their priority and their enforceability — which is where the difference between a year-old construction lien under Florida Statute 713.22(1) and a fifteen-year-old code lien under Florida Statute 162.10 becomes real money. Association balances are settled because of Florida Statutes 720.3085(2)(b) and 718.116(1)(a). Whatever remains goes to the seller.

All of that comes out of the sale proceeds, and only as far as the price reaches. If the house does not sell for enough to cover everything recorded against it, priority is not an accounting detail — it decides who is paid and who is not, in the order above. Taxes are paid whatever happens, because Florida Statute 197.122(1) puts them first; whoever is furthest down the list is the one left short. If you think the total may exceed what the house is worth, that is a different problem with different options, and it is the subject of our page on selling a house worth less than the mortgage.

Two things follow. First, a title search is not optional — you need to know what is actually recorded, and when. Second, some recorded liens are stale and can be cleared rather than paid, which is a question worth asking before assuming a number.

The thing not to do

Do not let a tax deed application run its course on the assumption that you will collect surplus afterwards. Florida Statute 197.582's 120-day claim window is unforgiving for anyone other than the property owner, the notice rules in Florida Statute 197.522 are short, and Florida Statute 197.522(1)(d) means a letter you never received still counts. Selling before that point keeps the decision, and the proceeds, with you.

Where we fit

Investor Trustee Services buys Florida houses for cash with taxes, certificates, code liens and association balances outstanding. We are used to closings where several payoffs have to be reconciled in priority order, and where some recorded liens turn out to be unenforceable. Where a reverse mortgage is involved, that is a particular focus of ours: Investor Trustee Services is an approved bidder in HUD's reverse-mortgage (HECM) loan sales and an active buyer of houses left behind by reverse mortgages.

Every section named here is free to read at leg.state.fl.us or flsenate.gov. Your county tax collector holds the tax and certificate position, the clerk of court holds the recorded liens and any tax deed application, and both are public records.

Selling a Florida house in this situation? Get a written cash offer — no fees, no repairs, and no obligation.