Florida Foreclosure Laws

Florida foreclosures are judicial or in-court proceedings and generally take about five months to complete. There is no redemption period in Florida foreclosures.

Pre-Foreclosure

A lender begins the Florida foreclosure process by filing a lis pendens, or a pending lawsuit notice. By mailing a notice or publishing it, the lender informs the debtor and other junior lien holders of the pending lawsuit. The debtor has a specific amount of time to reply to the notice. If he or she does not do so, the county clerk may decide that the debtor is in default. In this case, the court may make a final ruling against the debtor. If this happens, the court will usually decide the total debt amount as well as the foreclosure auction date.

Some deeds of trust or mortgages have a clause that requires the lender to notify the debtor before filing a lis pendens and starting the foreclosure process. Usually, however, the lender does not need to provide notice before filing an action. From the filing until the auction, the property is in pre-foreclosure and the debtor can stop the foreclosure process by paying the total debt amount up until the date of the foreclosure auction.

Notice of Auction

Most courts will set an auction date twenty to thirty-five days after the court decision, but the actual foreclosure sale date is at the discretion of the court. Once the date has been decided, the clerk of court issues a notice of auction or a notice of sale. This notice includes information about the time, location, and date of the auction. The notice must be published in a local newspaper for two weeks at a rate of once per week. The second and final notice must be published at least five days before the auction date.

Most foreclosure auctions in Florida take place at 11:00am at the county courthouse and are overseen by the clerk. The winning bidder must provide a deposit upfront of 5% of the bid and must pay the balance by the end of the business day. If this does not occur, another sale is held at least twenty days after the first attempt. If the winning bidder pays the bid amount, the bidder is given a certificate of sale. If the sale is not contested by anyone, ownership of the property is transferred to the winning bidder within ten days of the auction. Once the certificate of sale has been granted, the debtor usually has no redemption rights.