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Title after a Miami-Dade tax deed: redemption, what survives, and quiet title

How long redemption lasts under Florida law, which interests the statutes say survive a tax deed, and how the quiet title action written for tax deeds works.

By Tax Sale Intel research desk
Published · Updated
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Redemption lasts until a tax deed is issued, with one exception

A person may redeem a tax certificate at any time after the certificate is issued and before a tax deed is issued, unless full payment for a tax deed has already been made to the Clerk, including documentary stamps and recording fees. The operative deadline is therefore the issuance of the deed, or that earlier full payment, not the sale date alone. The person redeeming pays the Tax Collector the face amount plus all interest, costs, and charges. When the interest earned is less than 5 percent of the face amount, a mandatory minimum interest of an absolute 5 percent is levied on the face value, and the redeemer pays the interest rate due or the 5 percent mandatory minimum, whichever is greater. The Tax Collector also receives $6.25 for each certificate redeemed.

Sources: Florida Statutes § 197.472: Redemption of tax certificates

The general rule, and the governmental lien exception

Florida law gives a tax deed a defined starting position: all deeds issued under section 197.552 are prima facie evidence of the regularity of all proceedings, from the valuation of the lands to the issuance of the deed. The same statute states the general survival rule. Except as specifically provided in Chapter 197, no right, interest, restriction, or other covenant survives the issuance of a tax deed, except a lien of record held by a municipal or county governmental unit, a special district, or a community development district, when that lien has not been satisfied as of the disbursement of the proceeds of sale. The opening words of that rule matter. Two specific provisions the chapter makes elsewhere are the subjects of the next two sections, so quoting the general rule alone would understate what a deed leaves in place.

Sources: Florida Statutes § 197.552: Tax deeds; Miami-Dade Clerk: Property Tax Deeds

Easements the statute expressly preserves

Section 197.572 keeps specified easements in place after a tax deed. Title to the land continues to be subject to any easement for conservation purposes, or for telephone, telegraph, pipeline, power transmission, or other public service purposes. It also remains subject to an easement supporting improvements that may be constructed above the land, to an easement for drainage or for ingress and egress to and from other land, and to certain base buffering encroachment easements. An easement in one of these categories, and its owner's rights, survive and remain enforceable after the execution, delivery, and recording of a tax deed, to the same extent as though the land had been conveyed by voluntary deed. A researcher should therefore treat recorded easements as a live category after a tax deed sale, not as interests the sale automatically erased.

Sources: Florida Statutes § 197.572: Certain easements survive tax sales and deeds

Restrictions and covenants running with the land

Recorded restrictions and covenants running with the land also survive a tax deed, under section 197.573, enforceable after its issuance to the same extent as they would be against a voluntary grantee of the former owner. The section covers the usual restrictions limiting the use of property, the type, character, and location of buildings, and covenants against nuisances and other conditions the original parties treated as undesirable. It does not protect a covenant that creates a debt or a lien against the property, except one providing for a lien for assessments accruing after the tax deed to a condominium association, homeowners' association, property owners' association, or another person with assessment powers under the covenants. All forfeitures, rights of reentry, and reverter rights are destroyed instead, and do not survive to the grantee.

Sources: Florida Statutes § 197.573: Survival of restrictions and covenants after tax sale

Quiet title under section 65.081

Florida provides a quiet title action written specifically for tax deeds. Any grantee under a tax deed, or that grantee's successor in title, may maintain an action to quiet title to the land in the deed, against the holder of the record title and against anyone else claiming any interest in the land, or any lien or encumbrance on it, from before the tax deed issued. The action may be maintained whether or not the plaintiff is in possession. When the action is based on a tax deed, the complaint need not deraign title beyond the issuance of that deed. The statute then narrows the defense sharply: no defense, and no attack upon the tax deed, may be made except the defense that the taxes assessed against the property had been paid by the former owner before the deed issued. This guide describes that action; it does not advise anyone whether to bring one.

Sources: Florida Statutes § 65.081: Tax titles; quieting title; Miami-Dade Clerk: Official Records; Miami-Dade Clerk: Property Tax Deeds

Sources and review dates

Check dates show when the Tax Sale Intel research desk reviewed these sources. They do not establish live auction availability. Research methods and interpretation are Tax Sale Intel’s editorial guidance, not legal, tax, title, or investment advice.

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