Selling a House That Is in Foreclosure in Florida

Yes. You can sell a Florida house in foreclosure up until the clerk files the certificate of sale after the auction, or a later date if the final judgment sets one, because until then you can still pay off the debt and stop the sale (Florida Statute 45.0315). The final judgment sets the sale "not less than 20 days or more than 35 days" out, though a later date is allowed "if the plaintiff or plaintiff’s attorney consents" (Florida Statute 45.031(1)(a)). If the sale goes ahead and leaves a shortfall, a deficiency is capped at the debt minus fair market value and the lender has one year to sue (Florida Statutes 702.06 and 95.11(6)(g)).

Sources verified: September 27, 2026

This is general information, not legal advice.

You can sell right up until the sale

The most common misunderstanding is that filing a foreclosure ends your right to sell. It does not. The house stays yours to sell, and the proceeds pay off the mortgage as they would in any other closing.

The deadline to work to is the clerk’s certificate of sale, filed after the auction under Florida Statute 45.031(4) — or a later date if the final judgment names one. Until that point Florida Statute 45.0315 still lets the debt be paid off and the sale stopped, which is what a closing does. Legal title itself does not pass until the clerk files the certificate of title, which under Florida Statute 45.031(5) follows "if no objections to the sale are filed within 10 days after filing the certificate of sale," and under 45.031(6) the sale "shall stand confirmed" at that point. But those ten days are not a window to sell in — by then the right to pay the debt off has gone.

So what a sale needs is a payoff figure from the lender and enough time to close before the auction date. Practical problems, not legal ones.

The judgment sets the auction date, and it is soon

Florida Statute 45.031(1)(a) says the court "shall direct the clerk to sell the property at public sale on a specified day that shall be not less than 20 days or more than 35 days after the date thereof." The same provision allows a later date "if the plaintiff or plaintiff's attorney consents to such time."

That consent matters more than people realize. If you have a signed contract and need three more weeks to close, the lender's lawyer has statutory authority to agree to a later sale date. Whether they will is another question, but the mechanism exists.

Notice of the sale is published under Florida Statute 45.031(2), either on a publicly accessible website as provided in Florida Statute 50.0311 for at least two consecutive weeks before the sale, or once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper, in which case "the second publication by newspaper shall be at least 5 days before the sale."

The right of redemption ends earlier than most people expect

Florida Statute 45.0315 says that "at any time before the later of the filing of a certificate of sale by the clerk of the court or the time specified in the judgment, order, or decree of foreclosure," the borrower or the holder of a subordinate interest may cure the debt and stop the sale by paying the amount specified in the judgment, plus the reasonable expenses of proceeding to foreclosure including reasonable attorney's fees. Then it says: "Otherwise, there is no right of redemption."

Florida gives you no redemption window after the auction. Read the "later of" construction carefully, though, because it cuts both ways: the right to cure ends when the clerk files the certificate of sale or at any later time the judgment itself specifies, whichever comes second. So the certificate of sale is usually the cut-off, but not always — if your final judgment names a later date, that later date controls. Check the judgment rather than assuming.

Surplus funds: the rules changed, and the old advice is still circulating

If the house sells at auction for more than the judgment and costs require, the extra money is called surplus funds, and it belongs to you rather than the lender. This is where you will find the most out-of-date information online.

Florida Statute 45.032(1)(c) defines surplus as "the funds remaining after payment of all disbursements required by the final judgment of foreclosure and shown on the certificate of disbursements." Florida Statute 45.032(2) establishes "a rebuttable legal presumption that the owner of record on the date of the filing of a lis pendens is the person entitled to surplus funds after payment of subordinate lienholders who have timely filed a claim." Note what that turns on: who owned the property when the lis pendens was filed, not on the day of the auction.

The lis pendens itself is governed by Florida Statute 48.23. Under 48.23(1)(a), a court action "operates as a lis pendens on any real or personal property involved therein or to be affected thereby only if a notice of lis pendens is recorded in the official records of the county where the property is located." So the date that fixes who is presumed entitled to the surplus is the date that notice was recorded in the county records, which is a date you can look up.

On timing, Florida Statute 45.032(3)(a) says the owner of record may claim the surplus "before the date that the clerk reports it as unclaimed." Under Florida Statute 45.032(3)(c), one year after the sale any undisbursed surplus "is presumed unclaimed" and must be remitted to the state under Florida Statutes 717.117 and 717.119 — after which only the owner of record reported by the clerk, or the beneficiary of a deceased owner of record, is entitled to it.

You will still see sources say you have "60 days after the sale" to claim surplus. That deadline no longer exists. Those words were struck from Florida Statute 45.031 and Florida Statute 45.032 by chapter 2018-71, Laws of Florida, effective July 1, 2019, and replaced with the language above. The same act repealed Florida Statute 45.034 outright, so the court-appointed "surplus trustee" is gone too. If something you are reading mentions either, it predates July 2019.

One 60-day rule does survive, which probably explains the confusion, but it binds somebody else: Florida Statute 45.033(3)(b) requires a voluntary assignment of surplus rights to be "filed with the court on or before 60 days after the filing of the certificate of disbursements," and Florida Statute 45.033(3)(d) caps the assignee's compensation at "12 percent of the surplus." Those limit people who buy your claim, not you.

Be careful who offers to help

Where the property had a homestead tax exemption on the most recent approved tax roll, Florida Statute 45.031(1)(b) requires the final judgment to warn the owner, in conspicuous type, that "YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO HAVE A LAWYER OR ANY OTHER REPRESENTATION AND YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ASSIGN YOUR RIGHTS TO ANYONE ELSE IN ORDER FOR YOU TO CLAIM ANY MONEY TO WHICH YOU ARE ENTITLED," and to check with the clerk "WITHIN TEN (10) DAYS AFTER THE SALE."

Florida Statute 501.1377 separately regulates people who charge for "foreclosure-related rescue services." It bars such a consultant from taking payment "before completing or performing all services contained in the agreement." Anyone asking for money up front is worth checking against that section.

If the sale happens anyway: the deficiency question

If the house sells for less than you owe, the lender may ask the court for a deficiency judgment. Florida Statute 702.06 says entering one is "within the sound discretion of the court," then limits it: for owner-occupied residential property, "the amount of the deficiency may not exceed the difference between the judgment amount, or in the case of a short sale, the outstanding debt, and the fair market value of the property on the date of sale." The same section presumes, rebuttably, that a property with a homestead exemption before the foreclosure was filed is owner-occupied.

Florida Statute 95.11(6)(g) also gives the lender only one year to bring a deficiency claim on a one-to-four-family residential property. On when that year starts, the statute says: "The limitations period shall commence on the day after the certificate is issued by the clerk of court or the day after the mortgagee accepts a deed in lieu of foreclosure." Note that the statute says "the certificate" without saying which one — it does not specify the certificate of sale or the certificate of title. Both are issued by the clerk, and they are issued on different dates.

If the loan being foreclosed is a reverse mortgage (HECM), there is no deficiency at all: 24 CFR 206.27(b)(8) provides that the borrower "shall have no personal liability for payment of the outstanding loan balance" and that the lender "shall not be permitted to obtain a deficiency judgment against the borrower if the mortgage is foreclosed."

What selling actually changes

Selling before the auction lets you control the timing and the price, avoids the deficiency question altogether if the sale clears the debt, and works from a payoff figure you can see in advance.

Investor Trustee Services buys houses in Florida for cash, including houses with an active foreclosure case and a scheduled sale date. 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 above is free to read at flsenate.gov or leg.state.fl.us. Your own case file at the clerk of court — the complaint, the lis pendens, the final judgment, the notice of sale — is public record, and it is the most reliable source for where your case stands and what date has been set.

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