Foreclosure Surplus Funds in Florida: Who Gets the Money Left After the Sale

When a Florida foreclosure sale brings in more than the final judgment, the extra money is the surplus, and the law presumes it belongs to the person who owned the home when the case was filed. You can claim it yourself, using a form printed in the statute, and the clerk may help you. The clock is one year. This page explains what the surplus is, who is paid first, and how to claim it without giving a percentage away.

If you are earlier in the process, Florida’s foreclosure process timeline shows where the sale sits, and selling before foreclosure in Florida covers the option that usually keeps more of your equity than a courthouse auction does.

What “surplus” means

At the foreclosure sale, the clerk collects the winning bid and pays out what the final judgment orders: the plaintiff’s judgment amount, costs, and the clerk’s charges. The clerk then files a certificate of disbursements. Florida Statute 45.032(1)(c) defines the surplus as the funds remaining after all disbursements required by the final judgment and shown on that certificate.

Surpluses happen when the bidding is competitive and the judgment is small relative to value, which is common when a homeowner with equity is foreclosed by a small lien or an association. If the property sold for less than the judgment, there is no surplus, and the question becomes the deficiency instead.

Who is paid, and in what order

The statute sets an order:

1. Subordinate lienholders who filed a timely claim. A subordinate lienholder is any holder of a lien shown on the face of the pleadings other than the foreclosing party: a second mortgage, a judgment, a tax warrant, an association assessment lien, a construction lien (45.032(1)(b)). They must file their claim with the clerk before the date the clerk reports the funds as unclaimed; the certificate of disbursements says so in capital letters (45.031(7)).
2. The owner of record. The person or persons who owned the property on the date the lis pendens was filed. Florida law creates a rebuttable presumption that this owner is entitled to whatever remains after timely lienholder claims (45.032(2)).
3. Assignees. Anyone who claims to have bought the owner’s right to the surplus must prove the assignment is valid under section 45.033.

The Legislature wrote into the statute that the old common-law rule, under which the owner on the day of the sale took the surplus, is abolished. The date that matters is the lis pendens date.

How to claim it yourself

If you were the owner of record and no subordinate lienholder claims the funds, the court orders the clerk to deduct its service charges and pay you the rest (45.032(3)(a)). The steps:

1. Find the case. Search the clerk’s website in the county where the property sits for the foreclosure case number. Pull the final judgment, the certificate of sale, and the certificate of disbursements.
2. Read the disbursement certificate. It states the sale price, each disbursement, and the line “Surplus retained by clerk, if any.”
3. File the owner’s claim. Section 45.032(3)(a) prints the form, titled Owner’s Claim for Mortgage Foreclosure Surplus. It is a sworn statement that you owned the property as of the lis pendens, that you owe no other mortgage or judgment on it, that you are not in bankruptcy, and that you have not sold or assigned your right to the surplus. It is signed before a notary. The clerk may require identification and may assist you in making the claim.
4. If someone else also claims. The court sets an evidentiary hearing, and an assignee carries the burden of proving entitlement (45.032(3)(b)).

If the property qualified for the homestead exemption, the final judgment itself must tell you in conspicuous type that you may claim the funds yourself, that you are not required to have a lawyer or any other representation, and that you do not have to assign your rights to anyone (45.031(1)(b)). That sentence is in the judgment because the industry that buys surplus rights for a percentage is large.

The one-year clock

One year after the sale, any surplus still sitting with the clerk is presumed unclaimed and is reported and remitted to the Florida Department of Financial Services under the unclaimed property statutes, unless a court proceeding about entitlement is pending (45.032(3)(c)). After remittance, only the owner of record reported by the clerk, or the beneficiary of a deceased owner, can claim it from the state. Amounts under $10 escheat to the clerk.

A year sounds like plenty of time. It is not, if the mail is going to an address you left at the sale. Update your address with the clerk in writing the week you move.

The surplus recovery offer

After a sale with a surplus, letters and calls arrive offering to “recover” the money for 20, 30, or 40 percent. Florida regulates these assignments (45.033). For a voluntary assignment to override your presumption of entitlement, it must be in writing and must include:

• financial disclosures: the assessed value of the property, a statement that assessed value may be lower than actual value, the approximate debt, and the approximate equity; and, if signed after the sale, the sale price and the surplus amount;
• a statement that you do not need an attorney or other representative to recover surplus funds in a foreclosure;
• every form of consideration paid for the rights.

It must also be filed with the court on or before 60 days after the certificate of disbursements. If a paper you signed lacks those disclosures, it may not rebut your presumption. The court weighs the 45.033 factors at any hearing on entitlement.

The comparison is simple: the claim form is free, the clerk may help, and a court hearing is required only if someone else claims. Decide what a percentage of your equity is worth against that.

Before the sale: the surplus you never have to claim

A surplus exists only because the house had equity. If the sale has not yet happened, a conventional sale before the auction typically returns that equity to you directly, without a judgment, a hearing, or a year of waiting. Read can I sell my house if I am behind on payments and, if the lis pendens has already been filed, what a lis pendens means in Florida.

This page is general information for Florida homeowners and is not legal or tax advice.