Hillsborough County Surplus Funds List: Where to Find It and How Claims Actually Work

If you are hunting the Hillsborough County surplus funds list, the first thing to know is that there is no single list. The Clerk of Circuit Court runs two completely separate tracks - mortgage foreclosure surplus under Chapter 45 and tax-deed surplus under Chapter 197 - with separate pages, separate forms, separate auction sites, and separate deadlines. Confuse the two and you will file the wrong affidavit against the wrong statute and miss the window. This page lays out exactly where the lists live, how to look up the underlying cases, and how each claim track works in Hillsborough.

The Hillsborough County Surplus Funds List and the Exact Clerk Labels

The Clerk does not use one generic "surplus" bucket. It keeps two track-specific labels:

• Mortgage foreclosure (Ch. 45): called "surplus funds" or "surplus," held in the court registry, claimed with the Owner's Claim for Mortgage Foreclosure Surplus form. Live page: https://www.hillsclerk.com/court-services/foreclosure-sales.
• Tax deed (Ch. 197): called "surplus" or "excess proceeds," claimed by affidavit. Live page: https://www.hillsclerk.com/taxdeeds.

For tax deeds specifically, the Clerk publishes a weekly tax-deed spreadsheet plus a separate "Tax Deed Claims with Funds Available" report. You can pull the report directly here: https://www.hillsclerk.com/-/media/Hillsclerk/Reports/Tax-Deeds/Tax-Deed-Claims-with-Funds-Available-Information.xlsx. Heads up: that weekly spreadsheet lists only the file number and the unclaimed amount - no names, no addresses - and is provided "in the format it is maintained." You will need to do the owner identification yourself off the file number.

Unclaimed funds across both tracks eventually surface at https://www.hillsclerk.com/records-and-reports/unclaimed-funds.

How to Look Up the Case in Hillsborough (HOVER, Not Some Generic Portal)

Hillsborough does not use a one-size-fits-all docket portal. Court records and foreclosure dockets are searched through HOVER (Hillsborough Online Viewing of Electronic Records) at https://hover.hillsclerk.com. You can search by case number, party name, or date, and filter by division (civil, probate, and so on). For tax-deed files, the Clerk also exposes a Public Access View Application where the DR-513 certification and the O&E (ownership and encumbrance) report are posted for free.

The auctions themselves run on two distinct RealAuction sites, and that split is not cosmetic - it mirrors the two surplus tracks:

• Foreclosure auctions (Ch. 45): https://hillsborough.realforeclose.com, weekdays at 10:00 a.m.
• Tax-deed sales (Ch. 197): https://hillsborough.realtaxdeed.com, Thursdays at 10:00 a.m.

If you are working a surplus, confirm which platform the sale ran on before you touch a claim form. That tells you which statute governs.

The Two Florida Clocks, Side by Side (Never Lump Them)

This is where most people get burned. Hillsborough surplus lives under one of two statutory regimes, and they do not share rules.

Foreclosure surplus - Chapter 45. Under sec. 45.031 and 45.032, "surplus" means the money left after the certificate of disbursements pays everything in the final judgment. The owner's window to claim runs to roughly the one-year unclaimed/escheat mark (sec. 45.032) before the funds are remitted to the state. Separately - and this is the part people conflate - sec. 45.033 sets a 60-day deadline, measured from the FILING of the certificate of disbursements, to file a voluntary assignment or transfer of the right to surplus, and it caps an assignee or transferee's compensation at 12% of the surplus. The 60-day clock is the assignment-filing deadline. It is NOT the owner's claim deadline. Do not treat 60 days as your time to claim - that is wrong.

Tax-deed surplus - Chapter 197. This is a wholly separate track under sec. 197.582. The Clerk mails notice, and a claimant has 120 days from the date of that notice to file a written claim for the tax-deed surplus. The Ch. 45 rules - the one-year window, the 60-day assignment deadline, the 12% cap - do not apply here. Tax-deed surplus is governed by Ch. 197 and the ~120-day track, period.

Two clocks. Two chapters. Keep them apart.

Lien Priority and Where the Money Goes If Nobody Claims

The payout order is also track-specific.

Ch. 45 foreclosure surplus (sec. 45.032): after the certificate of disbursements pays everything in the final judgment, surplus goes first to subordinate lienholders who file a timely claim, in priority order, then to the owner of record as of the lis pendens filing date. The statute creates a rebuttable presumption that this owner of record - not whoever owned it on the sale date - is entitled to the surplus.

Ch. 197 tax-deed surplus (sec. 197.582): the Clerk pays governmental-unit liens of record first, then other lienholders in recorded priority order, then the former titleholder or owner of record.

Escheat. Both tracks ultimately escheat to the State of Florida (Department of Financial Services, Division of Unclaimed Property), but on different clocks. Foreclosure surplus that stays undisbursed one year after the sale is presumed unclaimed and reported/remitted under the unclaimed-property statutes (Ch. 717), unless entitlement proceedings are pending (sec. 45.032). Tax-deed surplus not claimed inside the 120-day window is processed as Ch. 717 unclaimed property regardless of whether the titleholder is a Florida resident (sec. 197.582).

The Hillsborough Quirk That Trips People Up

Hillsborough splits its tax-deed surplus claim forms by a hard cutoff date:

• Files predating the August 15, 2019 sale date use the older TD-Excess Proceeds Affidavit.
• Files from August 15, 2019 forward use the TD-120 Day Surplus Proceeds Affidavit.

Grab the wrong affidavit and your claim is built on the wrong form for that file's vintage.

Two more Hillsborough-specific operational facts worth tattooing on your process:

1. The weekly tax-deed spreadsheet gives you only file number + unclaimed amount (no names/addresses), "in the format it is maintained." There is also the separate "Tax Deed Claims with Funds Available" report.
2. Surplus claims are accepted only by mail to the address printed on the claim form. No in-person filing, no online portal, no emailed claims. Mail or it does not count.

And again, the county runs two distinct RealAuction sites - realforeclose.com for Ch. 45 and realtaxdeed.com for Ch. 197 - which is the operational proof that these two surplus tracks never mix.

Hillsborough County Surplus Funds FAQ

Where is the official Hillsborough County surplus funds list? There are two. Tax-deed surplus lives at hillsclerk.com/taxdeeds, including a weekly spreadsheet (file number + amount only) and the "Tax Deed Claims with Funds Available" report. Mortgage foreclosure surplus lives at hillsclerk.com/court-services/foreclosure-sales. The Clerk keeps them on separate pages.

Do I have 60 days or 120 days to claim? Neither number is a universal claim deadline. For tax-deed surplus, sec. 197.582 gives 120 days from the date of the Clerk's mailed notice to file. For foreclosure surplus, the owner's window runs to roughly the one-year escheat mark (sec. 45.032). The 60 days under sec. 45.033 is only the deadline to file a voluntary assignment.

Who is presumed entitled to a Hillsborough foreclosure surplus? Under sec. 45.032, after subordinate lienholders who file timely claims are paid in priority order, the owner of record as of the lis pendens filing date is entitled. The statute creates a rebuttable presumption favoring that owner of record, not whoever held title on the sale date.

How do I look up a Hillsborough foreclosure or tax-deed case? Use HOVER (Hillsborough Online Viewing of Electronic Records) at hover.hillsclerk.com - search by case number, party name, or date, filter by division. Tax-deed files are also viewable through the Clerk's Public Access View Application, where the DR-513 certification and O&E report are posted free.

Which affidavit form does Hillsborough require for tax-deed surplus? It depends on the sale date. Files before August 15, 2019 use the TD-Excess Proceeds Affidavit. Files from August 15, 2019 forward use the TD-120 Day Surplus Proceeds Affidavit. Either way, the claim must be mailed - no in-person, online, or emailed filing is accepted.

What happens to unclaimed Hillsborough surplus? It escheats to the State of Florida (Department of Financial Services, Division of Unclaimed Property) under Ch. 717. Foreclosure surplus goes unclaimed one year after the sale unless entitlement proceedings are pending (sec. 45.032). Tax-deed surplus goes to Ch. 717 if not claimed within the 120-day window (sec. 197.582).

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