How does the On-Line Tax Sale work
The following is an overview of the entire process that we refer to as the On-Line Tax Sale. It is intended as an overall understanding, from start to finish, on how the process works. It is not intended to include specifics on the Florida Real Estate Delinquency statutes or processes, and it is not intended to replace the need for tax sale documentation and/or training which is also available on-line.
Overview
Registration for the Tax Sale
Before you can begin bidding on tax certificates for any county, you must perform a series of Registration tasks. These registration tasks are needed to ensure the required paper work is completed and received by the Tax Collector as well as ensuring that the minimum deposit is made. These registration requirement tasks need only be performed once, after which you won’t need to perform these procedures again, with the exception of making additional deposit payments if necessary.
The registration process consists of the following steps:
- Setup your Web Access account. This involves establishing a Userid and Password that you’ll use to log into the on-line tax sale site(s). You must setup this account to participate. The same web access account (userid/password) can be used across multiple counties.
- Register for the Tax Sale for each county you intend on participating in. This registration includes…
o Completing a new W9 for each county. A new one is required each year by each county.
o Reading and agreeing to the Bidders Agreement. This agreement is made between you and the county. It describes the requirements and rules of the tax sale. It must be agreed to (signed) before you can participate in the tax sale.
o Receiving a Bidder Number from the county. The county reviews all registrations and will assign to you a Bidder Number. You must have received a bidder number before you can participate in the tax sale.
o You will receive an email from the system, containing your bidder number. This is your proof/confirmation that you have completed your registration. If you don’t receive this email, then you are not registered, and should contact the tax collectors office for assistance. You should allow multiple days for the tax collector to assign your bidder number and activate (email you) your account.
Registration is open generally a couple weeks before bidding can begin and ends the day before the actual tax sale.
Bidding
Once you have successfully Registered and once the On-Line bidding start date is reached, you can Log In and begin placing your bids. The on-line bidding start date is the first day that the advertising list is published in the newspaper. Bids can be submitted anytime from this date, until mid night before the actual tax sale date.
On-Line County Tax Certificate Sales in the State of
By placing a bid at any time prior to the Bid Ending Date, you are only reserving the bid amount entered. Bids are not officially submitted until the schedule Bid End Date and Time, which is mid night the night before the Tax Sale (the awarding). Bids can be changed or removed anytime prior to this scheduled Bid Ending Date.
Proxy Bidding
Any bids submitted on this web
site are treated as Proxy Bids. Proxy Bidding permits users to enter in
advance of the actual Tax Sale, the minimum interest rates they are willing to
accept for each tax certificate they would like to purchase. The Web Site will
serve as the Users' agent for submitting Proxy Bids on the day of the Tax Sale.
There are multiple ways of
bidding. You can place bids on
specific parcels (one by one). You can
utilize the tools within the system to query and filter the list and place bids
on the entire filtered list. You can
download the available list into an excel spreadsheet and place your bids off
line, and then upload
your bids back to the web site. All
of these ways are available and you can use any/all of them to place your
bids.
Remember, you have from the date
the bidding begins, the first date the advertising list is published in the
newspaper until mid night the night before the actual Tax Sale (awarding). There is no advantage gained or lost by the
timing of your bids.. all
bids are treated equally during the awarding process, regardless when or in
what order they were place.
Deposit Requirements
By Florida Statute, you must have
a deposit recorded with the Tax Collector for 10% of the total amount of the Certificate Face amount (the auctioned
item amount) before it can be awarded to you.
Since the Tax Sale is being conducted online and the awarding process is
based on Proxy Bidding, you are required to pay the Tax Collector what you
anticipate winning. If you anticipate
winning ALL of your bids, it is recommended you pay 10% of the total amount
that you are bidding. If you don’t
anticipate winning all bids, then you need to determine the level of deposit
that your comfortable with, knowing that a certificate (auctioned item) cannot
(will not) be awarded to you IF your available deposit at the time of the
awarding does not cover 10% of the face amount of that certificate (that
auctioned item). The amount of the
deposit is completely your responsibility.
Any bid that does not have the
appropriate deposit to “back it up” is considered unqualified and is not
submitted for you on the day of the tax sale.
This deposit must be received by
the Tax Collector prior to Certificate awarding. You can make your required deposits by
using a number of options, which include:
-
Paying on-line using
an eCheck. An
eCheck is much like writing a personal check, it’s
just done on-line. You will input your
checking account routing and account numbers. You can only use checks from checking
accounts that allow for the on-line ACH processing of the check. That generally means,
that you can only use echeck from accounts that are
standard “checking accounts”.
Generally, money market checking accounts will not work, nor will other
investment type checking accounts. If
you question whether your bank allows for eChecks
from your account, you should contact your bank. Because of the banking ACH network
available for on-line commerce, it’s not always known at the time of the
transaction whether the eCheck will be accepted (be
processed) by your bank. Thus, it’s
your responsibility to follow thru and ensure that your eCheck
did process through your bank.
Because eChecks don’t constitute certified
funds, the use or ability to use eChecks is disabled
approximately 6 business days before the Tax Sale. This gives the check plenty of time to clear
both banks (your bank and the tax collectors receiving bank) successfully.
There is
a maximum eCheck deposit transaction of $ 50,000 within an eCheck
Transaction. If you need to deposit
more then that, then you need to split your deposit
into amounts less than $ 50,000 and make multiple eCheck
deposits.
There is
no other cost to you to utilize the eCheck deposit
method.
-
Payment of deposits
using traditional Certified checks/funds.
You can pay using Certified checks right up until the close of business
the day before the Tax Sale date.
Included on your Certified check your
Bidder Number.
-
Wire Transfer of
deposit money into the Tax Collectors receiving bank account. Instructions for these wire transfers can be
obtained on-line from the Make Deposit page, or by requesting them directly
from the Tax Collectors office. It is
recommended that you notify the Tax Collectors office if/when you perform the
wire transfer with the amount and the payee name and bidder number, so that the
tax collector will be aware that it is coming and will record it against your
account accordingly. You can pay
using a Wire Transfer right up until the close of business the day before the
Tax Sale. Just remember, banks may have
their own timing limitations, so please don’t wait until the very last minute
to make these transfers. Contact your bank
if there is any question regarding when/how soon money is actually transferred.
You are responsible for any costs associated with the Wire
Transferring of funds.
-
The use of Credit
Cards is not allowed.
-
Any other form of
deposit would need to be approved by the Tax Collectors office directly, please
contact them.
Tax Sale Awarding
On the Tax Sale date (generally first thing in the
morning), the
software application will compare your minimum qualified acceptable rate for a
particular certificate with the best qualified bid submitted for that same
certificate by all other bidders. If your minimum acceptable rate is lower than
the best rate submitted by all other bidders for the same certificate and if
you have enough available deposit to cover 10% of the face amount of this item,
then the Web Site will automatically generate a bid on your behalf that is
0.25% less than the best rate submitted by all other bidders. Other users will
similarly have their minimum acceptable rates reviewed by the software, and if
their minimum acceptable rates are below the best rate submitted by all other
bidders for the same certificate, and they have met the deposit requirements,
then the Web Site will generate a bid for such user(s) that is 0.25% below the
best rate submitted by all other bidders.
If there is a tie at the winning bid rate, the
certificate will be awarded by the software to one of the tie bidders, that have met the deposit requirements, through a
random selection process using random selection software. In the case of a tie, the winning
percentage (the percentage recorded on that certificate) will be the percentage
that was bid. Example, if two people
bid 2%. One of these two will be
awarded the certificate (awarded thru the random awarding process) and the
winning percentage used on the certificate will be the bid percentage of 2%
If there is only one bidder who placed a bid on a certificate, that bidder will be awarded the certificate, as long as they have met the minimum deposit requirements, and the percentage used on the certificate will be 18%.
If a bidder bids 0% and is awarded the certificate, the percentage used on the certificate will be 0%.
Bids will be accepted in increments of .25% and be no higher than 18% and no lower than 0.00%.
You must be sure that you want a tax certificate before you bid. All Sales are final and there are no refunds. If as a winning bidder you fail to complete the purchase of a tax certificate, you forfeit your deposit and a County may choose to take legal action.
Payment for
Certificates after the Tax Sale
Once the Tax Sale is processed (on the date of the Tax Sale), you will
immediately be able to see through this web site the status of the certificates
that you bid on. The total amount that is due to the Tax Collector will be
displayed on the web site. This due amount
will be calculated as: The total Certificate Face amount for all certificates
won minus the total deposit paid prior to the sale. This amount must be paid
directly to the Tax Collector with Certified Funds within 48
hours after the Tax Sale. Any certificates
that are not paid for with certified funds within 48 hours after the tax sale
will be re-advertised and re-auctioned and the bidder will lose the 10% deposit
paid on the certificate.
It is your responsibility to ensure that the payment of certificate won is received by the Tax Collectors office within the required time. You should contact the Tax Collectors office ahead of time to arrange for non-traditional certified funds (e.g. wire transfers), if that’s your intention.
The use of on-line eChecks is not allowed, since these are not considered Certified Funds.
The use of credit cards is not allowed.
A spreadsheet containing the certificates that you were awarded will be provided upon your request, which will include the official Certificate Number assigned by the Tax Collector.
A spreadsheet containing the full results (all certificates) sold at the tax sale will be provided upon your request, which will include the official Certificate Number assigned by the Tax Collector.
Categories :
- Understand the Florida Delinquent Process
- Practice Site
- How does the On-Line Tax Sale work
- Data Downloads
- On-Line Documentation