Florida Law
197.582 Disbursement of Proceeds of Sale
Florida Statute §197.582 dictates the process to claim surplus funds by governmental lienholders, non-governmental lienholders, and owners of record.
Claimants have 120 days from the date of the Notice of Surplus Funds to submit a notarized claim to the Clerk and Comptroller. Claims can be submitted by mail, email, fax, or hand delivery. Once the claim window has closed, the Clerk and Comptroller will process all claims according to priorities set forth in F.S. §197.582.
Surplus funds are held by the Clerk and Comptroller for one year. If the Clerk and Comptroller receive no claims within one year from the date of the Notice of Surplus Funds, the monies are transferred to the State of Florida for holding.
45.032 Disbursement of surplus funds after judicial sale
Florida Statute 45.032 deals with the distribution of surplus funds after a foreclosure sale. Under this statute valid subordinate lien holders, meaning creditors with a low priority interest in the foreclosed-upon property that has been named in the proceeding, have 60 days after the sale of the property to submit claims for the surplus funds. After that time has passed the original owner named in the lis pendens that created the lien can make claim on any remaining surplus funds.
Any surplus remaining with the Clerk one year after the foreclosure sale is deemed unclaimed property.
On March 21, 2018, Governor Scott signed House Bill 1361. This bill declares that any foreclosure sales occurring after the effective date of July 1, 2019 will be subject to entirely different surplus distribution process for subordinate lienholders and ultimately owners.
The bill states that all claims for surplus funds must be filed, “no later than the date that the clerk reports the funds as unclaimed. The current statutory procedure instructs the clerk to follow state statutes concerning the escheatment of unclaimed funds to the Department of Financial Services, Division of Unclaimed Property. This means that surplus funds from foreclosure sales are to be sent to the Department of Financial Services after one year from the date of the foreclosure sale if the funds have not yet been disbursed by court order. As House Bill 1361 says subordinate lien holders have until the clerk declares the surplus funds unclaimed and sends to the Department of Financial Services. Therefore, the time frame for subordinate lienholders to file claims for surplus funds is thereby extended from 60 days to one year from the date of sale. This means that they have to wait that entire one year period now before any funds they have a valid claim for will be disbursed because the court needs to wait until the end of the period in order to see if any other lienholders with a priority claim will come in.