Do I Have to Pay Someone to Get My Foreclosure Surplus Money in Florida?
No. Florida puts that in writing on the claim form itself: you’re allowed to claim your own surplus money, no lawyer or anyone else required. If you do let someone help you, the law puts a hard number on what they’re allowed to take from you for it.
What Is Foreclosure Surplus Money?
When a Florida house sells at the foreclosure auction for more than what was owed, the leftover belongs to the person who lost the house. I wrote a couple weeks back about who that money actually goes to and the one year clock on claiming it. This one’s about what happens once somebody offers to go get it for you, because that’s usually the call that comes in first.
What Does the Judgment Itself Warn Me About?
The final judgment has to carry a notice, in capital letters, telling you there may be money left over after the sale. Where the home carried the homestead exemption on the most recent tax roll, a second block gets added, and it says the same thing the claim form does: you can claim the money yourself, you don’t need a lawyer or anyone else, and you don’t have to assign your rights to anybody. It also tells you to read carefully anything you’re asked to sign, and to get somebody else, preferably an attorney who isn’t related to whoever’s offering to help, to look it over first. The Legislature wrote that warning into the judgment on purpose, because it knew who’d be showing up at the door.
What Has to Be in the Agreement if I Do Bring Someone In?
Florida law treats this as a formal assignment, and it only qualifies if the paperwork does real work. It has to be in writing. It has to disclose the assessed value of the house, the approximate debt against it, and the approximate equity, and if it’s signed after the sale, the sale price and the surplus amount too. It has to say plainly that you don’t need an attorney. It has to spell out every single thing you’re being paid or asked to pay. And it has to be filed with the court within 60 days of the certificate of disbursements.
What Does the 12 Percent Cap Actually Cover?
On a qualifying assignment, the total anyone can be paid, owed, or expecting to earn off your surplus is capped at 12 percent of it. That’s a ceiling on that one kind of deal, not a going rate and not a stamp of approval on the arrangement itself. Two things sit right next to that cap in the statute. A court can still pay someone whose paperwork falls short of qualifying, if the deal was made in good faith with no intent to defraud you. And at the hearing where entitlement gets decided, the burden is on whoever’s claiming to have your rights to prove they actually do. It isn’t on you.
How Does This Work in Duval County?
Duval’s Clerk of Courts publishes an Owner’s Claim for Mortgage Foreclosure Surplus form and keeps a separate Unclaimed Funds page. The Clerk’s office is barred from giving legal advice, and Florida law also allows the clerk to help an owner put a claim together. Both of those are true at once and they aren’t in conflict. One is what the office can’t do. The other is what it can.
What This Means if You’re Waiting on a Surplus
Whether there’s a dollar sitting with the clerk on your own case, and how much, isn’t something a general article can tell you. That sits with whichever county’s clerk handled the sale. What the statute settles is the part people usually get told by whoever shows up first: you don’t have to pay anyone to get your own money, and if you choose to, the law limits what that costs you.
Jacksonville, Florida is where I work, and distressed property is most of what comes through the door here. Happy to talk through where your situation fits into any of this.
JimArmstrong904@gmail.com, or (904) 671-4161 if talking beats typing.
Jim Armstrong, REALTOR® · Momentum Realty · SFR® (Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource) certified. This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice.
Momentum Realty is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender.
