Tax certificate (Florida)

A lien the Florida tax collector sells each year on property with unpaid taxes: the buyer pays the taxes and earns interest.

In Florida, when property taxes go unpaid, the county doesn't sell the property right away. It sells a tax certificate: a lien for the unpaid taxes. The buyer pays the tax bill and gets the right to be paid back with interest.

Florida property taxes are due November 1 and become delinquent April 1. The tax collector advertises the delinquent parcels once a week for three weeks and sells the certificates on or before June 1 (or 60 days after the taxes became delinquent, if that's later).

Bidding works backward. Bidders compete on the interest rate, starting from the 18% a year maximum and bidding down, and the lowest rate wins. If nobody bids, the certificate goes to the county at the maximum rate.

When the owner pays the taxes back (redeems), the holder gets the bid rate or a minimum 5% charge, whichever is higher, unless the certificate was bid at 0%.

If the taxes stay unpaid, the holder can apply for a tax deed two years after April 1 of the year the certificate was issued, which starts the process toward a public tax deed sale. A certificate nobody applies on expires seven years after it was issued. How Florida foreclosure works

California and Texas don't sell certificates like these. In both, a tax sale sells the property itself, after years of default (California) or a court judgment (Texas).

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General information, not legal advice. For your own situation, talk to a lawyer.