Behind on Property Taxes in Duval County? Your Options Before the Tax Deed Auction
If a certified letter, a neighbor, or a stranger’s text just told you your Jacksonville home is behind on taxes and “going to auction,” take a breath before you do anything. The single most important thing to understand is this: in Florida, the tax certificate sale and the tax deed sale are two different events, years apart. Most people who are scared they are at the end of the process are actually near the beginning, with more time and more options than that notice made it sound. Some who assume they have years are actually at the second sale, with days. The stages below tell you which one you are in, in about thirty seconds, using the county’s own records.
Investors: there is nothing for you here — we don’t sell lists, share certificate data, or help anyone bid. This page is for the family whose name is on the notice.
Free, no-obligation. Tell us the address and we will tell you which stage you are in — even if you never sell to us.
Find Out Where You Stand — Free
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First: Find Your Stage
Florida runs a two-step system. A county sells a certificate first — a lien, not your house. Only much later can that certificate holder ask for a deed. Your options, your costs, and your urgency all depend entirely on where you sit on this line.
You owe this year’s taxes and it is still before April 1
→ Stage 0 — not yet delinquent. Nothing has been sold. Paying now is by far your cheapest outcome.
You missed April 1 but no certificate has been sold yet
→ Stage 1 — delinquent. Florida law sets a minimum charge of 3% on delinquent taxes paid before a certificate sells. This is the cheapest exit that still exists.
A certificate was sold on your property (the county’s annual sale)
→ Stage 2 — certificate outstanding. You still own the home. You can still live in it, and you can still sell it. Interest is accruing, but no one can take the property yet.
You received notice that someone applied for a tax deed
→ Stage 3 — deed application filed. This is the stage that matters. An auction date will be set and advertised. Act now.
Your property appears on a scheduled tax deed sale list
→ Stage 4 — auction scheduled. You can still redeem, but the window closes at a specific moment described below. Do not wait.
You can check which stage you are in yourself, free, using the Duval County Clerk’s Tax Deed Public File Viewer at taxdeed.duvalclerk.com. It searches by parcel ID, owner name, certificate number, and sale date. If your property does not appear there, you are not at Stage 3 or 4.
The Two Sales, Explained Plainly
Sale one: the tax certificate sale (this does not take your house)
Florida property taxes become delinquent on April 1 following the year they are assessed — or 60 days after the original tax notice was mailed, whichever is later (Fla. Stat. § 197.333). The Duval County Tax Collector then holds an annual certificate sale, which state law requires on or before June 1, or the 60th day after delinquency, whichever is later (§ 197.402). The sale is advertised once a week for three weeks beforehand.
The Duval County Tax Collector runs this sale online at lienhub.com/duval. In the Tax Collector’s own words, “a tax certificate is a lien, not ownership of the property.” Nobody buys your home at this auction. An investor pays your overdue taxes to the county and receives the right to be repaid with interest.
It is a reverse auction: bidders compete by bidding the interest rate down, in quarter-percent increments, and the certificate goes to whoever accepts the lowest rate (§ 197.432). That matters to you, because the 18% figure you will see quoted everywhere is a ceiling, not your rate. Eighteen percent is the maximum a certificate may carry (§ 197.172). Competitive bidding on an ordinary Jacksonville house frequently drives the winning rate far below it.
Two more numbers homeowners are routinely misquoted on:
- 3% minimum before the sale. If you pay your delinquent taxes before a certificate is sold, the minimum charge is 3% (§ 197.172(1)). This is the single largest saving available on this page.
- 5% floor after the sale. Once a certificate exists, if accrued interest at redemption would come to less than 5% of the certificate’s face amount, a mandatory minimum of an absolute 5% is levied on the face value (§ 197.472(2)). This is a floor on what the certificate holder receives — not an annual rate you are charged.
- A 60-day quiet window. A certificate may not bear interest, and the 5% mandatory minimum may not be levied, during the 60 days following delinquency — except for that 3% mandatory interest (§ 197.172(2)).
Sale two: the tax deed sale (this one can take your house)
A certificate holder cannot come after the property immediately. Under Fla. Stat. § 197.502(1), they may apply for a tax deed only after two years have elapsed since April 1 of the year the certificate was issued — and the Duval County Tax Collector confirms the same rule on its own site. If a holder never applies within seven years of issuance, the Tax Collector states the certificate “expires and becomes worthless.”
Tax deed sales in Duval County are run by a different office than the certificate sale: the Duval County Clerk of Courts, online at duval.realtaxdeed.com. The Clerk posts the sale date and property list 30 days before the auction and advertises each sale once a week for four consecutive weeks. That advertising requirement is your legal warning — but it is also why homeowners often hear about it from a neighbor before they open their own mail.
Duval County tax deed sale dates currently scheduled
As published in the Clerk’s tax deed portal, the sale dates scheduled after today are:
- Wednesday, August 12, 2026 — 9:00 AM
- Wednesday, September 16, 2026 — 9:00 AM
- Wednesday, October 14, 2026 — 9:00 AM
Duval holds these roughly monthly, but the dates vary and the Clerk publishes no fixed cadence — they are not always the second Wednesday. October 14 is simply the furthest date posted at the time of writing; more are usually added as the year goes on, so the absence of a later date does not mean there will not be one. Confirm your specific sale date at duval.realtaxdeed.com or with the Clerk’s Tax Deeds Department before you rely on any date, including these.
For context: the 2026 Duval tax certificate sale was held on May 27, 2026. The Tax Collector has not yet published a 2027 certificate sale date; state law requires it on or before June 1, or the 60th day after delinquency, whichever is later.
Free, no-obligation. Tell us the address and we will tell you which stage you are in — even if you never sell to us.
Your Redemption Window Is Later Than Almost Everyone Tells You
This is the most valuable paragraph on this page, so read it twice.
Under Fla. Stat. § 197.472(1), a person may redeem a tax certificate at any time after it is issued and before a tax deed is issued — “unless full payment for a tax deed is made to the clerk of the court.” The Duval County Clerk states the same rule in plainer words: you may redeem “any time before the clerk has received full payment for the Tax Deed.”
The cutoff is not when the gavel falls. It is not when the deed is recorded. It is the moment the Clerk receives the winning bidder’s money. And in Duval County, winning bidders are required to pay their bid and all deed filing fees by 4:00 p.m. the next business day after the sale.
In practice that can leave a narrow window after an auction has already happened. We are not going to tell you to count on it — a bidder who wires funds promptly closes it fast, and it is not a plan. But if your auction was yesterday and you have been told it is over, it may not be. Call the Duval County Tax Collector at (904) 255-5700, option 4, immediately — redemption money goes to the Tax Collector, not to the Clerk who ran the sale. That split trips up nearly everyone.
To redeem, you pay the face amount of the certificate plus all interest, costs, and charges. The Tax Collector receives a fee of $6.25 for each certificate redeemed (§ 197.472(3)).
One thing Duval County will not let you do
Be clear-eyed about this, because false hope costs homeowners their equity: Duval County does not accept partial payments on delinquent taxes. The Tax Collector’s published policy states it directly — partial payments are available on current-year taxes from November 1 through March 31 only, and “partial payments are not accepted for delinquent taxes.” The quarterly installment plan is likewise a tool for future tax years; you apply on or before April 30 to prepay the coming year, and it cannot be used to cure a balance that is already delinquent.
If you are already delinquent and cannot pay the full amount, your realistic options are to borrow it, to redeem with help from a family member, or to sell the property and pay the lien out of the proceeds. There is no county payment plan waiting for you. Anyone who tells you otherwise has not read the Tax Collector’s policy.
If Your Home Is Your Homestead, Florida Protects You More Than You Think
Here is a genuine advantage that owner-occupants have and investors do not, and it is the reason a tax deed auction on a Jacksonville family home often behaves very differently from one on a vacant lot.
Under Fla. Stat. § 197.502(6)(c), if your property is assessed on the latest tax roll as homestead property, the opening bid at the tax deed sale must include — on top of the taxes, interest, and costs — an amount equal to one-half of the latest assessed value of the homestead.
Think about what that does. On a home assessed at $260,000, the auction cannot open at the $9,000 you owe; it opens tens of thousands of dollars higher. That single provision makes a bargain-basement loss much less likely and makes surplus funds much more likely. It requires the homestead exemption to be on the latest tax roll — so if you have been meaning to file for homestead and have not, that is worth a call to the Property Appraiser regardless of what you decide about selling.
Surplus Funds: The Money Most Former Owners Never Claim
If a tax deed property sells for more than the opening bid, the excess is held by the Clerk as surplus funds. That money is not the county’s and it is not the bidder’s.
Under Fla. Stat. § 197.582, a person receiving the Clerk’s notice has 120 days from the date of that notice to file a written claim for the surplus. The clock runs from the date the notice was mailed — not from the sale date. The Duval County Clerk requires a notarized, complete, properly signed statement of claim, filed with the Tax Deeds office, with a copy of a state-issued photo ID and documents proving entitlement, such as probate records, a recorded deed, a lien, or a mortgage. Incomplete claims are returned.
Read this before you sign anything a “surplus recovery” company sends you. The Duval County Clerk publishes this warning itself, and we are repeating it because it is worth money to you: “Please note you may claim these funds yourself. You are not required to have a Lawyer or any other representation. You are not required to assign your interest to any other party in order to claim any money to which you are entitled.” The Clerk further advises reading very carefully any document an asset-collection agency asks you to sign, and seeking unaffiliated advice. If you cannot afford an attorney, the Clerk refers homeowners to Jacksonville Area Legal Aid at 126 West Adams Street — verify their current contact details directly, as the Clerk’s referral sheet has not been updated since 2022.
We would rather you keep that money than pay someone a third of it. This is also why selling before the auction is usually better than counting on surplus: a sale you control produces a known number now, while surplus is a claim process that runs months and can be reduced by liens the Clerk must pay first.
See Your Actual Numbers — Free, and Yours to Keep
Tell us the address and we will put three numbers in front of you: what the house is worth as-is, what it would cost you to redeem, and what you would walk away with if you sold. If redeeming is the better move, we will say so and you will still have the figures.
Sell or Redeem — an Honest Comparison
| Your situation | Usually the better path |
|---|---|
| You can raise the full redemption amount and want to stay | Redeem through the Tax Collector. Keep your home. |
| You are before the certificate sale and can pay | Pay now — the 3% minimum charge is the cheapest this ever gets. |
| The house needs repairs you cannot fund | Sell as-is. We do not ask for repairs. |
| You inherited the property and it is tangled in probate | Talk to us early — we can provide proof of funds, which often helps demonstrate to the court that the estate is being handled. |
| The property is vacant and accruing code issues | Sell. Carrying costs compound and code liens can stack onto the same problem. |
| A tax deed sale is already scheduled on your parcel | Call today. On timelines this short, title work has to run in parallel — and we will tell you honestly whether a closing can realistically be completed in the time left. |
| You owe more than the house is worth | Your mortgage lender would have to agree to any sale for less than the balance. That is a conversation between you and your lender — we can tell you what the house is worth, but we do not negotiate with lenders on your behalf. |
What a sale to us actually looks like
- We buy as-is. No repairs, no cleaning, no agent commissions.
- The delinquent taxes are paid out of the proceeds at closing through the title company, so the lien is cleared as part of the transaction.
- We cover closing costs at settlement.
- You receive the remaining equity.
- Most sellers have a written, no-obligation offer in hand within 24 hours. Most of our closings take two to three weeks. When the title is already clean, we’ve closed in as little as 7 days.
What we are, and what we are not. We are a buyer. We are not a foreclosure rescue service, a counseling agency, or a negotiator. We do not contact your lender, we do not modify loans, and we do not represent you before the county or the court.
We also will not tell you that signing a contract with us stops the county’s clock — it does not. What actually resolves the lien is redemption, or a completed and funded closing where the tax debt is paid out of the proceeds. A contract simply lets title and payoff work begin. And we will not promise to close before any particular auction date: whether that is achievable depends on title condition, payoff figures from the Tax Collector, and the calendar — none of which are ours to control. We will give you an honest read on the timeline and you can decide from there.
Between the Offer and the Closing
The most common thing that goes wrong with a cash sale is the buyer who writes a big number to win you, then grinds it down the week of closing. Here is how we handle the part everyone else stays quiet about.
The price we write is the price we close at. We never renegotiate just to renegotiate. The number only changes if the property’s condition turns out to be materially different from what we could see or were told — short of that, the figure on the offer is the figure at the closing table.
We keep visits to a minimum. We schedule them around you, not the other way around — typically a single walkthrough before we finalize our number. Your home is not a showroom, and we will not treat it like one.
Proof of funds comes with the offer. You will not have to ask for it twice, and you will not have to take our word that the money is real — it is on the table when the number is.
One person, not a machine. You deal with Jacob from the first call to the closing table. If your answer is no, we take the no — one follow-up to make sure you have what you need, and then we leave you alone. You will not be handed off to a call center or sold as a “lead” to five other investors.
No pressure to sign. Accept it, or take time to think it over — either way, we understand. No offer of ours is only good “if you sign today.” Take it to a family member, a lawyer, or another buyer for comparison; a real offer survives a second opinion.
Closings run through established, independent local title companies. A neutral title company handles the closing and the funds — the same way any legitimate real estate sale closes.
Where We Buy in Duval County
We buy houses with tax certificates, tax deed applications, and title problems across Jacksonville and Duval County — including Riverside, Avondale, Murray Hill, Springfield, San Marco, Arlington, Mandarin, Ortega, Northside, Westside, Southside, Baymeadows, Oceanway, Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach, Atlantic Beach, and Baldwin. Older homes near downtown with original plumbing and wiring are exactly the kind of property we expect to see, not a reason for us to walk.
Questions Duval County Homeowners Actually Ask
Someone bought a certificate on my house. Did I lose it?
No. A tax certificate is a lien, not ownership — that is the Duval County Tax Collector’s own language. You still own the property, you can still live in it, and you can still sell it.
How long before someone can actually take the house?
A certificate holder cannot even apply for a tax deed until two years have passed since April 1 of the year the certificate was issued (Fla. Stat. § 197.502). After they apply, the Clerk sets a sale date, posts the list 30 days ahead, and advertises weekly for four consecutive weeks.
Can I sell after a certificate has already been sold?
Yes. The lien travels with the property and is settled at closing out of the sale proceeds. Your title is still yours to transfer.
Can I set up a payment plan on what I already owe?
Not for delinquent taxes. The Tax Collector’s published policy states partial payments are not accepted for delinquent taxes, and the quarterly installment plan applies to future tax years only, with an April 30 application deadline.
Do you buy houses with code violations or open permits too?
Yes. Tax problems and code problems usually arrive together. See our Duval County code violations guide.
Is the offer really free?
Yes — the valuation and the written offer are free with no obligation. We only earn anything if you choose to sell to us.
Official Duval County Contacts — Verify Everything Here
| Duval County Tax Collector Jim Overton, Tax Collector 231 E. Forsyth Street, Jacksonville, FL 32202 (904) 255-5700 — option 4 for redemption taxcollector.jacksonville.gov | Delinquent taxes, certificate sale, redemption payoffs. Redemption money is paid here. |
| Duval County Clerk of Courts — Tax Deeds Department 501 West Adams Street, Room 1054, Jacksonville, FL 32202 (904) 255-1916 · ask.taxdeeds@duvalclerk.com Monday–Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. | Tax deed sales, sale lists, surplus funds claims. |
| Tax Deed Public File Viewer taxdeed.duvalclerk.com | Check free whether your parcel is scheduled for sale. |
| Tax deed auction platform duval.realtaxdeed.com | Where sales are actually conducted. Linked from the Clerk’s official site. |
| Certificate sale platform lienhub.com/duval | The annual certificate sale — a different auction from the one above. |
Statutes referenced on this page: Fla. Stat. §§ 197.333, 197.402, 197.432, 197.172, 197.472, 197.502, and 197.582.
Who You Are Dealing With
- Entity
- Consistent Homebuyers — a real estate solutions and investment firm
- Principal
- Jacob Simpson
- Phone (call or text)
- (904) 827-7690
- Based in
- St. Augustine, Florida (32092) — serving FL, MD, VA, and DC
- Operating since
- 2018
- Homeowners helped
- Over 100 (as stated on our homepage)
- Reviews
- ★ 4.7 on Google — read our reviews
- Areas served — Florida
- Duval, Clay, Nassau, St. Johns, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, and Hillsborough Counties
- Areas served — Maryland
- Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Montgomery, and Prince George’s Counties
- Areas served — Virginia
- Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William Counties
- Areas served — District of Columbia
- Washington, DC
- Purchase type
- Direct cash purchase. You deal with us directly — no call centers, and your information is never sold as a lead.
- Property condition accepted
- As-is. No repairs, no cleaning, no agent commissions.
- Proof of funds
- Available on request and can be provided promptly — useful where a probate court or a county office wants evidence a sale is real
- Typical offer turnaround
- Written, no-obligation offer usually within 24 hours
- Typical closing timeline
- Most closings take two to three weeks; as few as 7 days when the title is already clean
- Closing costs
- We cover closing costs at settlement
- Cost to you for an offer
- None. The valuation and written offer are free with no obligation.
- Licensing & role
- Consistent Homebuyers is not a real estate brokerage and does not act as your agent — we buy directly, as principals, for our own account. The company’s owner, Jacob Simpson, individually holds active real estate licenses in Maryland and Virginia (not in Florida) and discloses that in every transaction; on a Florida purchase like this one we act solely as the buyer. We are not attorneys, accountants, or tax preparers, and nothing here is legal, tax, or financial advice.
Other Ways We Help Duval County Homeowners
- Sell a house in Jacksonville or anywhere in Duval County — for sales with no tax issues
- Selling an inherited house in Duval County — probate-specific guidance
- Duval County code violations — code compliance liens and open permits
- Eviction help in Duval County — if a tenant is complicating the sale
- Clay County, St. Johns County, and Nassau County tax delinquency
- ← All tax delinquency solutions
Important Disclaimer
Consistent Homebuyers is a real estate investment firm — not a law firm, not a financial advisor, not a tax preparer. Jacob Simpson is not a licensed attorney or accountant, and nothing on this page constitutes legal, tax, or financial advice.
The county-specific information on this page is sourced from the Duval County Tax Collector, the Duval County Clerk of Courts, and the Florida Statutes as published by the Florida Legislature, and was verified on July 19, 2026. Auction dates change, statutes are amended, and individual circumstances vary. Before acting on anything you read here you should:
- Confirm your own status and payoff with the Duval County Tax Collector at (904) 255-5700
- Confirm any sale date with the Duval County Clerk’s Tax Deeds Department at (904) 255-1916 or at duval.realtaxdeed.com
- Consult a licensed Florida attorney about your specific situation, particularly if a tax deed application has been filed against your property
- Read the statutes yourself at the Florida Legislature’s website
This page is updated periodically but should not be your only source of information for decisions involving your home and your equity. Verify everything.