Martin County Tax Deed Sales: Bidding, Redemption, and Surviving Liens

Martin County tax deed sales are online auctions run by the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller that transfer real property from a tax-delinquent owner to the winning bidder. The auctions happen on the RealAuction platform, the winning bidder puts down a nonrefundable deposit at sale and pays the balance within 24 business hours, and the deed that issues afterward is a real conveyance that usually still needs a quiet title action before the property can be resold or financed cleanly.

Registering and Placing a Bid

You register through RealAuction, the Clerk’s official online auction platform, and submit a valid W-9.¹ Bidding through an LLC or other entity requires an EIN rather than a personal Social Security number.²

No money is required to place a bid. The deposit obligation attaches only when you win: the winning bidder must post a nonrefundable deposit of 5% of the final bid or $200, whichever is greater, at the time of sale.³ The Clerk accepts wire transfers and ACH through the online portal. Personal checks and credit cards are not accepted. If your deposit doesn’t clear, you lose the property, so confirm your funding method can move money quickly before you bid.

The auction uses proxy bidding. You enter a maximum, and the system raises your bid in increments only as needed against other bidders, up to your cap. Late bids reset the closing timer, which prevents last-second sniping.

How the Opening Bid Is Set

The opening bid is not a market-value price. It reflects the certificate holder’s investment in the parcel: the amount to redeem the certificate, any other outstanding certificates or delinquent taxes, costs of sale, advertising, additional clerk’s fees, and interest at 1.5% per month from the month after application through the month of sale.³

Homestead properties carry a much higher floor. The opening bid on a homestead parcel must also include an amount equal to one-half the assessed value.³ The bump protects owners from losing a home for a fraction of its value, and it often keeps competitive bidders away.

Researching a Property Before You Bid

The Clerk publishes a Tax Deed List with a folder for each scheduled parcel: legal description, owner of record, and links to the Property Appraiser’s database for assessed value and land use.¹ That is a starting point, not a substitute for diligence. The Clerk offers no guarantees about condition, boundaries, environmental status, or title.

Read the low opening bid as a warning as much as an opportunity. Government liens can outlast the sale, and so can federal tax liens under the right conditions. Search county records and federal lien filings on any parcel you’re serious about, and price the risk into your maximum bid.

Paying After You Win

The payment window is short. The full balance of the final bid, plus documentary stamp tax and recording fees, is due within 24 hours of the sale, excluding weekends and legal holidays.³ The clock starts when the auction closes.

Documentary stamp tax runs $0.70 per $100 of the sale price, or any portion of $100.⁴ On a $50,000 winning bid, that is $350. Recording fees under Florida law are $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page, combining the base fee with the mandatory public records modernization surcharge.⁵ A typical two-page deed comes to about $18.50 in recording fees.

Missing the deadline is expensive. The Clerk cancels all your bids, keeps your deposit to cover readvertising, applies any remainder toward the opening bid on the rescheduled sale, and can refuse to recognize your bids at any future Martin County tax deed sale.³ No extensions are granted for bank delays or wire problems.

The Owner Can Still Redeem

Winning the auction does not lock in your purchase. The owner can redeem at any time before full payment is made and the tax deed is signed.¹ Redemption requires paying the certificate face amount plus accrued interest, costs, and charges, with a mandatory 5% minimum if the earned interest is less.⁶ Last-minute redemptions are uncommon but do happen; when they do, the sale is effectively unwound.

What Liens Survive the Sale

Florida law extinguishes most prior liens when a tax deed issues. Mortgages, judgment liens, and most private claims are wiped out.⁷ That is the appeal of buying at a tax deed sale, and it is also the source of the biggest misunderstandings.

The exceptions matter. Liens held by a municipal or county government, a special district, or a community development district survive the tax deed if they aren’t satisfied from the sale proceeds.⁷ Code enforcement liens, unpaid utility assessments, and CDD bonds can all follow the property to you. Liens held by parties who didn’t receive proper notice may also survive.

Federal Tax Liens

Local property tax liens generally take priority over federal tax liens, so a properly conducted tax deed sale can extinguish a federal lien that attached after the local tax lien.⁸ A federal lien that attached before the local tax lien stays on the property.

For the sale to discharge a junior federal tax lien, the IRS must receive written notice at least 25 days before the auction. Without that notice, the property sells subject to the federal lien regardless of priority.⁹

The IRS 120-Day Right of Redemption

Even after the sale properly extinguishes a federal tax lien, the IRS keeps a 120-day right to redeem the property, or the period allowed under state law, whichever is longer.¹⁰ If the IRS redeems, it pays the sale price plus interest, you get your money back, and you lose the property.¹¹ The IRS rarely exercises this right, but on properties with significant federal tax debt bought well below market value, it is a real possibility. Wait out the 120 days before making major improvements.

What the Tax Deed Actually Gives You

Once your payment clears, the Clerk drafts and records the tax deed in the official public records. You are the legal owner. What you do not have is marketable title that a title insurance company will readily insure. Tax deeds can carry defects from notice failures, procedural errors in the certificate process, or interests that weren’t properly extinguished. Lenders won’t finance property with a clouded title, and most conventional buyers won’t purchase it.

Quiet Title Actions

Florida has a specific statute for tax deed holders to file a quiet title action, asking a circuit judge to declare that you own the property free of prior claims. When the suit rests on a tax deed, you don’t need to trace the chain of title back before the deed issued, and the only defense available to the former owner is proving the taxes were actually paid before the deed issued.¹²

An uncontested quiet title suit typically runs $1,500 to $6,000 in attorney fees, depending on complexity and whether anyone contests. Treat it as a standard line item in your acquisition cost. Skipping it limits what you can do with the property later.

Surplus Funds

If the property sells for more than the opening bid, the excess is surplus. The Clerk applies surplus first to any governmental liens of record, including tax certificates not covered by the application and any omitted taxes. Remaining funds go to the former owner and other parties who held recorded interests at the time of sale.¹³

Former owners and lienholders are notified and have 120 days to file a written claim. Anyone other than the property owner who misses that window permanently waives the right to the funds.¹³ If no claim is filed, the law presumes the former owner is entitled to the surplus, and the funds move into Florida’s unclaimed property system. If you lost property to a tax deed sale in Martin County, check with the Clerk’s office.

Buying an Occupied Property

A tax deed doesn’t guarantee an empty house. If tenants are in place under a lease, the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act may require any successor in interest on residential property to give at least 90 days’ notice before requiring the tenant to leave, and tenants with existing leases may be entitled to remain through the end of the term.¹⁴ Whether that federal law reaches every tax deed sale hasn’t been uniformly resolved by the courts, but assuming it applies is safer. Talk to a real estate attorney before taking any action to remove tenants.

1
Martin County Clerk and Comptroller. Tax Deeds
2
Internal Revenue Service. About Form SS-4, Application for Employer Identification Number (EIN)
3
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 197.542 – Sale at Public Auction
4
Florida Department of Revenue. Documentary Stamp Tax
5
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 28.24 – Service Charges by Clerk of the Circuit Court
6
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 197.472 – Redemption of Tax Certificates
7
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 197.552 – Deed of Lands; Form and Effect
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6323 – Validity and Priority Against Certain Persons
9
eCFR. 26 CFR 400.4-1 – Notice Required With Respect to a Nonjudicial Sale
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 7425 – Discharge of Liens
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 2410 – Actions Affecting Property on Which United States Has Lien
12
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 65.081 – Tax Titles; Quieting Title
13
Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 197.582 – Disbursement of Proceeds of Sale
14
GovInfo. 12 USC 5220 – Assistance to Homeowners