Palm Beach County Surplus Funds List: Where to Find It and How the Two Florida Tracks Actually Work

If you came here looking for a single Palm Beach County surplus funds list you can download in one click, here is the honest answer up front: it does not exist. Palm Beach County runs two completely separate surplus tracks with two different labels, two different statutes, and two different clocks. The foreclosure surplus lives in the court registry case-by-case, and the tax-deed surplus is a paid report you buy through the Clerk's online store. Mix the two up and you will file the wrong claim under the wrong deadline. This page walks the exact mechanics for both, with the live Clerk links and the statute numbers that govern each waterfall.

The Clerk and Comptroller, Palm Beach County is your source of record for both. Foreclosure information sits at mypalmbeachclerk.com/departments/courts/foreclosures. Both departments physically sit at the Main Courthouse, 205 N. Dixie Hwy, Room 3.2400, West Palm Beach. Foreclosures: 561-355-6240. Tax Deeds: 561-355-2962.

Two labels, two tracks: what the Palm Beach County surplus funds list really is

Palm Beach does not publish one combined "excess proceeds" file. The label depends on which sale created the money.

Foreclosure track (Chapter 45). The Clerk calls this "surplus funds." After a foreclosure sale, any money left over the satisfied judgment and costs sits in the court registry, tracked by case number, not on a master list. The homeowner files the "Owner's Claim for Mortgage Foreclosure Surplus" form. There is no single public list for these; you find them by working cases one at a time in the docket.

Tax-deed track (Chapter 197). The Clerk calls this "Surplus Proceeds of a Tax Deed Sale." The claim form is the "Claim to Surplus Proceeds of a Tax Deed Sale." Here a list does exist, but it is not free. The Clerk sells the "Current Tax Deed Surplus/Registry Report" through ClerkCart at appsgp.mypalmbeachclerk.com/clerkcart, under Product Categories. Tax-deed claims can be filed by mail or by email to TaxDeeds@mypalmbeachclerk.com.

Keep the labels straight. "Surplus funds" means foreclosure. "Surplus Proceeds of a Tax Deed Sale" means tax deed. They never share a list and they never share a deadline.

How to find cases and lists in Palm Beach County

The public docket system is eCaseView, at mypalmbeachclerk.com/records/court-records. You do not need to register. Anyone can search by name, case number, court type, or case type, view the full docket and party list, and print uncertified images for free. Document images go back to late 2008; case data reaches back to roughly 1976. For foreclosure surplus, eCaseView is your primary tool: you locate the case, read the docket for the certificate of disbursements and any surplus order, and pull the party list to see who was an owner of record or a subordinate lienholder.

For the tax-deed list and for new-foreclosure-case reports, the Clerk routes you to ClerkCart under Product Categories. The auctions themselves run on the Clerk's own ClerkAuction platform at mypalmbeachclerk.clerkauction.com, with a tax-deed informational lookup at taxdeed.mypalmbeachclerk.com. So the practical split is: foreclosure surplus is free to track but case-by-case in eCaseView, while the tax-deed surplus list is consolidated but paid through ClerkCart.

The two Florida clocks, side by side. Never lump them.

This is where most people lose money. Palm Beach runs two statutory tracks with different deadlines, different priority orders, and different escheat triggers.

Foreclosure surplus, Chapter 45.

• The sale and judgment run under sec. 45.031.
• Section 45.032 sets a rebuttable presumption that the owner of record on the date the lis pendens was filed is entitled to the surplus. After the Clerk issues the certificate of disbursements, subordinate lienholders who timely file are paid first, then the remaining surplus goes to that owner of record.
• The 60-day clock here is NOT a general claim deadline. Under sec. 45.033 it is the deadline to FILE a voluntary assignment or transfer of surplus rights after the certificate of disbursements. Subordinate lienholders must also file within 60 days of the sale to share.
• Section 45.033 caps assignee compensation at 12 percent of the surplus and lists the factors a court weighs to overcome the owner presumption.
• The owner's window to claim runs all the way to the roughly one-year unclaimed and escheat mark, not 60 days.

Tax-deed surplus, Chapter 197.

• Section 197.582 governs. The Clerk pays governmental units first: any lien of record held by a governmental unit, plus any tax certificate not incorporated in the tax deed application and any omitted taxes, all BEFORE disbursing to nongovernmental claimants. Remaining surplus then flows to other lienholders by priority and finally to the former titleholder.
• The claim window is roughly 120 days, measured from the date the Clerk mails the surplus notice. Claims not filed by close of business on the 120th day are barred for everyone except the property owner.

Do not apply the 60-day or 12 percent Chapter 45 mechanics to a tax-deed surplus, and do not apply the 120-day Chapter 197 deadline to a mortgage-foreclosure surplus. They are separate waterfalls. Keep the orders separate; they are not the same.

Where the money goes if nobody claims it

Both surplus types ultimately escheat to the Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Unclaimed Property, under Chapter 717. Different clocks, same final destination.

• Foreclosure surplus is remitted roughly one year after the judicial sale if it is still undisbursed and no entitlement proceeding is pending (sec. 45.032).
• Tax-deed surplus is remitted after the 120-day claim window closes unclaimed (sec. 197.582).

Once it escheats, you are no longer working with the Clerk. You are filing an unclaimed-property claim with the state, which is a slower and different process.

The Palm Beach quirk: in-house auctions and no free combined list

Most Florida counties outsource their online sales to RealAuction. Palm Beach does not. It runs its own in-house online auction platform, ClerkAuction, built on Grant Street Group technology. Foreclosure sales went online there in January 2010, and tax-deed sales followed in June 2012. By the 2012 tax-deed launch the county had already pushed over 45,000 foreclosures online with more than 28,000 sold, which is a very high-volume pipeline by Florida standards. Tax-deed auctions are held online on Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m.

The practical consequence for surplus hunters: there is no free combined surplus list anywhere in Palm Beach. The foreclosure surplus lives in the court registry case-by-case and you track it through eCaseView for free. The tax-deed surplus is consolidated into one report, the "Current Tax Deed Surplus/Registry Report," but you have to buy it through ClerkCart. So your workflow is genuinely two-headed: a free, manual docket grind on one side, and a paid, packaged report on the other.

Palm Beach County surplus funds FAQ

Is there a single free Palm Beach County surplus funds list? No. The foreclosure surplus is not published as a list at all; it sits in the court registry by case number and you track it for free in eCaseView. The tax-deed surplus is a consolidated "Current Tax Deed Surplus/Registry Report" sold through ClerkCart. There is no single free combined file.

What is the deadline to claim a Palm Beach foreclosure surplus? The 60-day clock under sec. 45.033 is the deadline to file a voluntary assignment of surplus rights, and subordinate lienholders must file within 60 days to share. The owner of record's window runs to the roughly one-year unclaimed and escheat mark under sec. 45.032, not 60 days.

What is the deadline for a Palm Beach tax-deed surplus? Roughly 120 days under sec. 197.582, measured from the date the Clerk mails the surplus notice. Claims not filed by close of business on the 120th day are barred for everyone except the property owner. Do not confuse this with the Chapter 45 foreclosure deadlines.

Who gets paid first in a Palm Beach tax-deed surplus? Governmental units. Under sec. 197.582 the Clerk pays any governmental lien of record, any tax certificate not incorporated in the tax deed application, and any omitted taxes before any nongovernmental claimant. Remaining surplus then goes to other lienholders by priority and finally to the former titleholder.

How do I file a tax-deed surplus claim in Palm Beach? File by mail or by email to TaxDeeds@mypalmbeachclerk.com, using the "Claim to Surplus Proceeds of a Tax Deed Sale" form, within the 120-day window of sec. 197.582. The Tax Deeds department is at 205 N. Dixie Hwy, Room 3.2400, West Palm Beach, 561-355-2962.

Where does unclaimed Palm Beach surplus go? Both types escheat to the Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Unclaimed Property, under Chapter 717. Foreclosure surplus remits about one year after the sale (sec. 45.032); tax-deed surplus remits after the 120-day window closes unclaimed (sec. 197.582).

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