Guide · Miami-Dade & Broward

You won. Now the hard part.

The bidding was the easy half. What follows is a balance due by lunchtime tomorrow, a set of fees that were never in your bid, ten days in which you have paid for a property you do not yet own — and, more often than anyone expects, somebody still living in it.

Pay the balance by noon tomorrow

The balance of your bid plus the court registry fee is due by 12:00 PM ET the next business day — or by whatever deadline the final judgment sets, because the judgment can set its own. Broward's Clerk publishes it exactly that way: noon the next business day, "or by the deadline stated in the judgment".

How you pay changes what the deadline means. Cash, a cashier's check or a money order has to be delivered by the deadline. A wire has to be *initiated* at your bank by it. That is the reverse of the deposit rule, where the money had to have arrived and cleared — so a bidder who learned one rule and applied it to the other gets it wrong in the more expensive direction.

Your 5% deposit is applied to what you owe. What it does not do is cover the fees. And on the tax deed side, in both counties, funds sitting on deposit cannot be used for the final payment at all — the balance goes as a separate transfer while the deposit waits to be refunded.

Broward states that unused deposit money can be retained for future auctions or refunded, with a refund taking around fifteen business days, while another answer on the same site calls the deposit "nonrefundable". The sensible reading is that it becomes non-refundable once it has been applied to a bid you fail to complete — but the site does not actually say that, so confirm it with the Clerk on (954) 831-5745 rather than planning around our reading of it.

The fees that were never in your bid

Three charges land on top of the winning bid, and none of them appear in the number you were bidding.

The court registry fee is Fla. Stat. § 28.24(11)(a): 3% of the first $500 and 1.5% of each subsequent $100, which is about 1.5% of the bid. It is charged on the full bid, not on the balance after your deposit — § 45.035(3) says an advance deposit is not subject to the fee while it is only securing the right to bid, but the winner's deposit becomes subject to it on acceptance of the bid.

Then documentary stamp tax on the deed, and then the recording fee. What is not yours: the $70 service charge for making and certifying the sale and the additional $70 for conducting it electronically are both assessed to the plaintiff under § 45.035. If you see them quoted as a buyer cost, or quoted at $60, the source predates the 2021 amendment.

The deed tax is computed on your bid, and it rounds up: Fla. Admin. Code 12B-4.013(3)(a): the tax is computed on the amount of the highest and best bid, and the Clerk collects it from the high bidder when the certificate of title is recorded. The rate applies to "each $100 or portion thereof", which means it rounds up — Broward's own page says "nearest", which is not what the statute says and understates the bill on an odd number.
Broward: $0.70 per $100, flat: The standard Florida rate under § 201.02(1)(a), with no surtax, whatever the property type. On a $300,000 bid that is $2,100.
Miami-Dade: $0.60 per $100, plus a surtax that often does not apply: Miami-Dade is the only county in Florida at $0.60, with a $0.45 surtax on top under § 201.031. But the surtax is not due on a document conveying only a single-family residence — and § 201.031(1) says in terms that the single-family residence may be a condominium unit. On a $300,000 bid: $1,800 for a house or one condo, $3,150 for commercial, land, multi-family or a deed conveying more than one residence.
So a Miami-Dade condo costs less deed tax than the same price in Broward: $1,800 against $2,100 at $300,000 — and Miami-Dade vacant land costs $1,050 more. Plenty of law-firm and realtor blogs will tell you a Miami-Dade condo pays the full $1.05. For a single unit on a single deed, they are wrong, and the statute says so.

One thing we could not resolve: townhouses. The statute lists a condominium unit, a stock-ownership unit and a detached dwelling, and an attached fee-simple townhouse is not literally detached. We found no Department of Revenue guidance on the point, so we do not publish an answer. If you are bidding on a townhouse in Miami-Dade, budget for the surtax and ask the Clerk.

Run your number with the fees included

If you cannot pay, you lose the deposit

Miss the deadline and the deposit is forfeited and the sale is nullified. The Clerk re-advertises the property and the forfeited money pays for it: Broward describes deducting the non-refundable registry fee and the re-publication cost, with whatever is left applied to the judgment.

In Miami-Dade the artifact is a Certificate of Incomplete Sale, and the deposit funds the re-advertisement the same way. The harshest version is on the tax deed side in Broward, where failing to complete deactivates your RealAuction bidding account for a year.

None of which is a reason to panic-fund a bid. It is a reason to decide your ceiling before the sale opens, and to have the balance sitting somewhere you can move it from on a Tuesday morning.

Ten days before you own anything

When the balance is paid the Clerk files a certificate of sale. That is a receipt, not a deed. Under Fla. Stat. § 45.031(5) any party may serve an objection to the amount of the bid within 10 days of that filing, and only when those days pass without one does the clerk file the certificate of title and title passes.

Broward adds the operational condition: a certificate of title may issue after ten full days have elapsed "and provided there is no other action relating to the subject proceeding". A motion filed in the case can hold your title up beyond the ten days.

Plan for the gap. You have paid in full, you are exposed to the property, and you cannot yet record anything, insure as owner or take any step that assumes ownership. Ten days is the best case.

Where the certificate of sale fits in the whole sequence

The property may be occupied

This is the part first-time buyers underestimate, every time. Winning the sale does not hand you keys, and the certificate of title does not either. If somebody is living in the house — the former owner, a tenant, or somebody with no paperwork at all — removing them is a separate legal process that begins after title passes, and a tenant may have protections the former owner does not.

We are not going to publish a timeline. The honest answer is that it depends on the case, on who is inside and on what they do when they are asked to leave, and that it is never free. What matters is that it belongs in your maximum bid as a real number before the sale, not as a surprise afterwards.

This is also the point at which most people need a Florida attorney, and it is considerably cheaper to have one lined up before you bid than to go looking for one the week you find out the house is not empty.

Do not try to shortcut it. Changing locks, cutting utilities or moving somebody's belongings on your own initiative is how a manageable legal process becomes an expensive one. Get advice first.

Insurance, utilities and the first look

You need insurance from the day title passes, and on this coast that is not a small line item. Get the quote before the sale — an uninsurable roof is something you would rather learn while you can still not bid.

Then the practical week: put utilities in your name, secure the property, and finally go inside. This is usually the first time you have seen it. Expect it to be worse than the outside suggested, because you estimated repairs from the kerb and from the permit history, and because a vacant house in South Florida heat and humidity deteriorates faster than the photographs imply.

Open permits and code cases are the follow-on. They come with the property, and they can stand between you and renting, selling or insuring it until they are closed — which usually means doing the work first.

What else came with the property

What changes at County Line Road

Two counties, forty minutes apart, running the same statute in materially different ways. Most of what people repeat as local knowledge is actually Florida law and identical in both — so the rows marked 'same in both' matter as much as the ones that differ.

Miami-Dade / Broward
Verified September 2026.	Miami-Dade	Broward
Who runs foreclosure sales	Clerk of the Court & Comptroller	Clerk of Courts, 17th Circuit
Who runs tax deed sales	The same Clerk, through its Tax Deed Unit	Records, Taxes & Treasury — a county division, not the Clerk
Auction platforms	One office and one rule set covering both sales	Two sites, two agencies — foreclosures and tax deeds are separate logins
Foreclosure sale time	9:00 AM ET, Mon–Wed	10:00 AM ET, Tue–Fri
Tax deed sale time	Thursdays, 2:00 PM ET	Roughly monthly, Mondays 9:00 AM ET
Foreclosure deposit	5% of your anticipated high bid	5% of your anticipated high bid
Deposit deadline	3:00 PM ET the day before, in person or by wire	3:00 PM ET the previous business day — and money orders are accepted here
Foreclosure balance due	12:00 PM ET the next business day	12:00 PM ET next business day, or whatever the judgment says
Tax deed deposit	$200 or 5%, whichever is greater — in person or by wire	$200 or 5% — ACH only, by 4:30 PM ET the Thursday before
Tax deed balance due	Within 24 hours	11:00 AM ET the next business day
Deed documentary stamps	$0.60 per $100, plus a $0.45 surtax unless it is a single-family home or one condo unit	$0.70 per $100, flat, no surtax
Who takes the deed tax	The Clerk — one office takes everything	The Clerk takes the bid, the county takes the deed tax — two offices
Penalty for not paying	Barred for two auction dates; a Certificate of Incomplete Sale issues	Two auction dates for foreclosures — but a tax deed default deactivates the account for a year
In-person sales	Not offered	Still possible where the final judgment requires it
Court registry fee	3% of the first $500, then 1.5% of each further $100	3% of the first $500, then 1.5% of each further $100

Sourced from the Miami-Dade Clerk, the Broward Clerk, Broward's Records, Taxes and Treasury Division, the auction platforms and Florida Statutes §§ 45.031, 45.035, 28.24 and 201.031. Procedure is set by each county and changes — confirm the current rules with the relevant office before you bid.

Where this comes from

Florida Statutes §§ 45.031(5) and (6), 45.035(1) and (3), 28.24(11)(a), 201.02(1)(a) and 201.031(1).
Florida Administrative Code 12B-4.012(3) and 12B-4.013(3)(a), and the Florida Department of Revenue's documentary stamp tax guidance — including the rule that one condominium unit counts as a single-family residence.
Broward Clerk of Courts, Circuit Civil, for the balance deadline, forfeiture and the certificate of title condition; the RealAuction FAQs for payment instruments and refunds.
Miami-Dade procedure and the Certificate of Incomplete Sale via tasks/research-geo-seo.md §2.1.
Not published here, because we could not verify it: the documentary stamp treatment of an attached townhouse in Miami-Dade, and any timeline for removing an occupant.

NewLevel Investment RE is a real estate brokerage. This is general information, not legal advice, and nothing here describes what will happen in your case. Removing an occupant in particular is a legal process with its own rules — get a Florida real estate attorney involved before you bid, not after you win.

Miami-Dade →Broward →

Keep reading

How the sale actually runsFinal judgment to certificate of title, and what the bidder is doing at each step in both counties. What a winning bid does not wipe outSurviving liens, taxes, association dues and the difference between a first and a junior mortgage being foreclosed. Max bid calculatorRegistry fee, deed tax and recording, built into the ceiling instead of discovered after it. Buying at auction with usWe are there on the day, and for the payment, the title and the possession problem afterwards.

Questions

Straight answers.

Still unsure? Ask us directly in the form above. A real person reads every one.

What happens after you win a foreclosure auction in Florida?

You pay the balance of your bid plus the court registry fee by noon the next business day, or by the deadline in the final judgment. The Clerk then files a certificate of sale. Ten full days later, if nobody has objected to the amount of the bid and nothing else is pending in the case, the Clerk files the certificate of title and the property is yours. Only then can you start on possession, insurance as owner and the work.

What happens if you win a house at auction and cannot pay?

You forfeit the deposit and the sale is nullified. The Clerk re-advertises the property, and the forfeited money pays for the re-publication and the non-refundable registry fee before anything left over goes to the judgment. In Miami-Dade a Certificate of Incomplete Sale issues. On Broward's tax deed side the penalty is heavier again: your bidding account is deactivated for a year.

What fees do I pay on top of the winning bid?

A court registry fee of 3% on the first $500 and 1.5% on each further $100, charged on the full bid rather than the balance. Documentary stamp tax on the deed, computed on your bid and rounded up to the next $100: $0.70 per $100 in Broward, $0.60 in Miami-Dade plus a $0.45 surtax that does not apply to a single-family residence or one condominium unit. And the recording fee. The two $70 charges under Statute 45.035 are the plaintiff's cost, not yours.

How long does the certificate of title take?

Ten full days after the certificate of sale at the earliest. Under Statute 45.031 any party can serve an objection to the amount of the bid within those ten days, and Broward adds that a certificate of title may issue after the ten days only if there is no other action pending in the case. A motion filed in the file can push it out further. Treat ten days as the best case rather than the expected one.

Can the sale be undone during those ten days?

An objection to the amount of the bid can be served within the ten-day window, and other activity in the case can hold up the certificate of title. That is the risk period you are carrying after you have already paid in full. It is one more argument for treating the balance as genuinely committed money and for not planning anything that depends on owning the property until the title actually issues.

Can I use my deposit to pay the balance?

On the Broward foreclosure side you can pay from funds on deposit if there is enough on the account to cover everything owed. On the tax deed side, in both counties, you cannot — the balance has to be sent separately while the deposit sits waiting to be refunded. Since the two sales in Broward are run by different offices on different platforms, check which set of rules you are under before the sale rather than on the morning after it.

What if someone is still living in the property?

Winning does not give you the right to take possession or change the locks. Removing an occupant is a separate legal process that starts after the certificate of title issues, and a tenant may have protections the former owner does not. How long it takes depends on the case and on who is inside, so we will not publish a timeline — but it is never free, and it belongs in your maximum bid as a real number. Have a Florida attorney lined up before you bid.

When do I need insurance?

From the day the title passes, and you should have the quote in hand before you bid rather than after. Coastal South Florida insurance is a material cost, and a roof that cannot be insured is something you would much rather discover while you still have the option of not bidding at all.