We buy houses in Escambia County, FL.

Florida runs neither a late August sale nor an Alabama style lien auction. Real estate taxes here become delinquent on April 1, when a three percent interest charge is added. In May the Tax Collector advertises the delinquent list in the newspaper and online, and the law requires a tax certificate sale on or before June 1 each year. Escambia County runs its sale online at BidEscambia.com. The Tax Collector's office is 850-438-6500 and quotes the payoff on your parcel.

A tax certificate is a lien against the property, not a sale of it. Bidding runs downward from a statutory maximum of eighteen percent interest, and the lowest rate wins the certificate. You keep title and you keep living there. Under Florida Statute 197.432 a certificate holder is not even permitted to contact you about payment until two years after April 1 of the year the certificate was issued, so an early letter is not coming from the county.

The loss point is later, and it is a different event. Two years after April 1 of the year the certificate was issued, the holder may apply for a tax deed, and the Clerk of the Circuit Court then sells the property at public auction to the highest bidder. Escambia's Clerk holds those tax deed sales online on scheduled days. Until that auction happens the property is still yours, and paying the certificate off ends the matter.

Mortgage foreclosure in Florida is judicial, which is the opposite of both Mississippi and Alabama. Your lender has to file a lawsuit, serve you, and obtain a judgment before anything is sold, so you get a case number, a docket, and a chance to respond. The trade off comes at the other end. Under Florida Statute 45.0315 your right of redemption ends when the clerk files the certificate of sale, or at the time set in the judgment. Florida gives no year afterward the way Alabama does.

Florida's Save Our Homes cap holds the annual increase in a homestead's assessed value to three percent or the change in the consumer price index, whichever is lower. It lasts only while the property is a homestead. On a change of ownership the assessment resets to market value the following January 1, and non-homestead property is capped at ten percent instead, a cap that does not apply to school district levies. That is why an inherited East Hill house can arrive with a tax bill nothing like your parent's. Ask the Property Appraiser.