Surplus funds can also be referred to as an “overage”, or “excess funds”. When a property goes into foreclosure, it sells at auction. The foreclosure may be an association foreclosure, a mortgage foreclosure, or a tax-deed foreclosure, for example. In any case, when the property sells, it often times will sell for more than the amount for which it was being foreclosed on. These excess funds are called a “surplus”, and these excess funds belong to the original home-owner, or heirs to the original home-owner!

You have been identified as the appropriate party to claim these funds because property you owned has gone through a foreclosure or tax sale, or because you are an heir to property that has gone through sale.

The funds we are calling you about are held in the county court registry. They are the result of an association foreclosure, a mortgage foreclosure, or a tax-deed foreclosure sale, where the amount the property sold for at auction is more than the amount it was being foreclosed on for. These are called “surplus funds”.

Whoever owned the property on the date the lawsuit was filed is the party who can claim surplus funds. They can make that claim after any lien holders are paid what they are owed on the property. Other lien holders might be: second or third mortgages, city liens (unpaid water, electricity, trash, etc.), code enforcement violations (didn’t fix something the city asked you to), UCCs (people who have a secured asset they have loaned to you like solar power on the roof, or hot water heaters, etc.) During our case review, our expert specialist will walk you through all the details of your case and who may or may not claim surplus. A lot of times, we see the investor or purchaser at auction try and make a claim for surplus funds. This happens a lot when the homeowner isn’t represented by us. If nobody files an objection to this claim, a lot of judges will grant it. As a result, money that actually belongs to you (the prior homeowner) instead gets wrongfully disbursed to the new buyer of the home at auction. We can and will fight this on your behalf!

If you aren’t the owner of record, you’ve been identified as an heir to that person. When someone who owns property passes away, and their property goes through foreclosure, the “heirs” of that person are the rightful party to claim surplus.Sometimes it’s as simple as a spouse’s property, or your parents. However, in the state of Florida if someone dies without a will they died “intestate”, and so there is a predefined set of rules on who are the heirs. Your account specialist will walk you through how exactly you are entitled to the funds, but rest assured we are experts in this and have identified you as the right party!

The short answer is, No!
If the mortgage was not named in the foreclosure case, they cannot claim surplus. Even if they are the plaintiff, they can’t claim surplus because they were paid in full from the proceeds of the sale. If they are not named, the reason why they cannot claim surplus is that they still have their “senior” lien on the property; they weren’t “foreclosed”. The person who bought it at auction bought the property with that mortgage still on the property, and so that new property owner is now responsible for that mortgage. In other words, you are in the clear to have us claim the funds on your behalf.

Typically, a motion needs to be filed with the court so that these funds can be collected. In order to do this, you can hire an attorney on your own which is very costly – attorneys typically charge an hourly rate which you will have to pay out-of-pocket, even if they aren’t successful. Alternatively, if you find an attorney that works on contingency, then they will charge a fee as high as 40% or more! When the claims are more complex in nature, our attorneys need to work diligently to establish you as the rightful recipient of these funds, and to ensure that the court orders a release of these funds by the agency holding them. By working with The Recovery Agency, all the attorney’s fees and related expenses are completely covered by us. There are zero out-of-pocket expenses that you will incur. And we work strictly on a contingency basis, so we only get paid when/if you get paid! And if we are not able to recover any funds on your behalf, then our services are 100% free of charge!

After one year, the funds from your foreclosure sale are sent to the Florida treasury. They can still be claimed from there but that process is much more complex and takes significantly longer, so you really need to collect them before one year.The biggest problem isn’t the funds being lost to the county or state, but there are people who watch these cases and if someone doesn’t file for the funds within the first few months, they will fraudulently try and collect the funds for themselves. They might even try and sign your name on certain papers in an attempt to claim the funds. We have worked with homeowners in the past who were victims of fraud, and we were able to defeat those fraudulent claims and get the funds disbursed to the homeowners correctly.

If you utilize The Recovery Agency services, we will never ask you to pay us a dollar out of your pocket. The Recovery Agency will advance any and all costs and fees in order to process your claim. We only are paid on the back-end once we have secured the funds on your behalf. This will all be spelled out in your agreement with us.

The funds will eventually be sent to the Florida Department of Treasury, but will stay claimable forever, in the state of Florida these funds do not “Scheat” to the state like other states. If you don’t want the funds, consider using The Recovery Agency to partner with one of our charities, many of which go to help homeowners facing foreclosure, or we can partner with a charity of your choosing and direct the funds to them.

In most cases, your primary mortgage is a superior lien to that of the HOA, meaning that their lien on the property is not extinguished as a result of the home selling due to the HOA foreclosure. By law, the mortgage company would not be entitled to the surplus funds, and they are yours to claim. There are other pertinent details that need to be discussed in these situations, and our legal team here at The Recovery Agency is perfectly equipped to help you through them.