Liberty County
Surplus Funds Recovery
When a property in Liberty County sells at a foreclosure or tax deed auction for more than what was owed on it, the extra money is called surplus funds, and under Florida law it belongs to the former owner. That's your equity. Your equity is still yours. It just changed address. Once it's claimed it's liquid cash in your hands instead of value locked inside a house you no longer own. If your Liberty County property sold at auction, there may be money sitting in your name right now, and a clock running against it.
Is This Real?
It's real, and it happens far more often than most people think. Counties across Florida are holding surplus funds from foreclosure and tax deed sales in the names of former owners who never came forward. Most never do.
The reason is almost always the same. The notice goes to the address the county has on file, and that address is usually the property itself. It gets mailed to that property ten days after the property was auctioned, to a house the owner has already moved out of. Most former owners, or the person handling the estate, learn the money exists when we contact them.
If you got a letter about surplus funds and you're wondering whether it's true, here's what's true about ours. We do the research, we prepare the documents, we work with the attorney, and we follow up all the way through. You pay from what we recover, and only from what we recover. Your claim stays your claim, in your name, start to finish.
Is It Legal, and Is It Mine?
Yes on both, and the highest court in the country has said so twice.
In 2023, the Supreme Court held unanimously in Tyler v. Hennepin County that a government commits an unconstitutional taking when it keeps more than it was owed after a tax foreclosure. The surplus above the debt is the former owner's property, and it has to go back.
In June 2026, in Pung v. Isabella County, the Court returned to the question and clarified that the amount is measured by what the distressed auction sale actually brought, minus the debt, court costs, and fees, rather than by the property's market value. The protection itself stands. Florida returns surplus to former owners who timely and correctly file a claim. The right eligible former owners have to it is settled ground. The argument drew national coverage.
So the money is yours. The question was never whether you're entitled to it. The first step is believing that money exists after a foreclosure and that it's yours. The second is deciding how you want to go after it, on your own or with a firm whose way of working matches what you want out of this.
Is It Ethical to Use a Recovery Firm?
This is the same as seeking representation in any other legal action you want a favorable outcome from. You always have the right to self-representation, but the vast majority prefer to have help from those who know the process and navigate it on their behalf. The decision is yours.
What stops most people is that they never learn or believe the money exists. A claim filed late, filed wrong, is a claim that fails, and the money keeps sitting where it is, earning a return for somebody else.
So the honest answer comes down to how a firm works with you. Here's how we work.
We never take assignment of your claim
When you assign your rights to a claim it is called an assignment, this method of processing claims is not our custom.
We file through a licensed Florida attorney
Your claim is filed by a licensed Florida attorney who appears as the attorney of record. Recovered funds move through that attorney's trust account, and you receive a settlement statement showing the total amount received and everything paid out of it, much like a HUD-1 Settlement Statement. You get full disclosure from beginning to end. You're not sourcing a lawyer, vetting one, or paying one out of pocket. We retain counsel and we carry that and other costs along the way.
You pay nothing unless we recover
There's no upfront cost, no out of pocket cost to you throughout the process, and no hourly billing. Our fee comes out of what we recover, so if nothing reaches you, you owe us nothing. Every case gets researched before we can quote a fee, because the number depends on several factors we go through with you in the free consultation. You get that amount in writing before any work begins.
Why Most Liberty County
Surplus Claims Are Never Made
Every obstacle below has cost somebody their claim. None of them are unusual.
The notice goes to an address you already left
The County mails the Notice of Surplus to the property that was foreclosed, ten days after that property was auctioned. The property is usually vacant and the notice rarely gets forwarded. A lot of the people who do see it recognize the envelope as one more court document from the worst chapter of their life and throw it out, never knowing it carried the only good financial news of the whole experience.
Time moves whether or not anyone tells you
Time starts counting when the notice is mailed. If you didn't receive or open it, you simply didn't find out that more money than you owed was paid by the auction buyer, so you don't know about it, understand it, or believe it. It's like having an account with money that keeps sitting there, and after a period of time it moves out of the county's hands and into state custody. The road back to it simply gets longer and harder, and that's a road most people find out about after the shorter one has closed behind them. You know now, we made sure of it.
Other people may be reaching for the same money
You may not be the only party entitled to a piece of it. Junior lienholders, co-owners, and competing claimants turn up in these files regularly. We walk you through what that means for your claim in the consultation, and in more detail after the review.
When the owner has passed away
When the owner of record has passed away, their heirs may have rights to it. That brings additional steps and additional documentation, and it arrives while your family is grieving a loved one, and often the home you may have grown up in. We work diligently to carry you through it.
Before You Decide
It's worth being honest with yourself about what it asks of you. You'd need to be comfortable with deadlines. Preparing legal documents that have to be right the first time and fixing them when they come back. With the chance that your claim may end up in front of a judge, which is what happens when more than one party says the money is theirs. And if it does, holding your ground against junior lienholders and competing claimants who do this for a living.
If you read that and you're confident, you don't need us. We wish you the absolute best, and we mean it.
If you hit a snag along the way, we'll be here. We'd just rather you know one thing going in, so nothing catches you off guard later. A claim that's already been filed takes longer to fix than it would have taken to file right, so your money reaches you later than it should have.
We're here for those who would rather avoid errors, unnecessary delays, being stressed throughout the process and having the claim rejected altogether. We carry every part of it, and you stay the claimant throughout.
Our Process
The Abraham Recovery Method
Three steps, and we carry all three.
Verify
We verify what is owed to you.
File
We file through a licensed Florida attorney.
Deliver
We deliver the funds.
Surplus Funds in Liberty County
Liberty County is the least populated county in Florida, and Bristol, the county seat, is the kind of town where first names do the work of addresses. Foreclosure cases run through the county court in Bristol, and the auctions happen online, only a few in any given year. Rare does not mean small: even one sale can leave behind money that matters.
Most of the county is covered by the Apalachicola National Forest, so the private land that remains carries real value, especially parcels with timber or river frontage. When one of them sells at foreclosure for more than the debt, everything above what was owed may belong to the person who lost it.
Families here hold land for generations, and losing a piece of it hurts in a way the numbers never capture. Liberty borders Jackson, Gadsden, Leon, Wakulla, Franklin, Gulf, and Calhoun counties, and we serve former owners across all of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Surplus funds are what's left when a property sells at a foreclosure or tax deed auction for more than the debt that forced the sale. Under Florida law that money belongs to the former owner, and the county holds it until somebody claims it.
Yes. In 2023 the Supreme Court unanimously held that a government keeping more than it was owed is an unconstitutional taking. Former owners who file correctly and on time receive their surplus, even when competing claims are unqualified or miss their own deadlines. Losing the property didn't cost you the equity the auction paid above the debt. Lack of action will.
Surplus is real, and letters about it are common. If the letter came from us, the information in it came from the county court record, and we verify all of it again before anything gets filed on your behalf. Our office is on Brickell Avenue in Miami, a person answers our phone, your claim is filed by a licensed Florida attorney, and we are paid from what we recover. Fifteen minutes on the phone is enough to tell you where you stand.
No. This is however exactly the same as seeking representation in any other legal action you want a favorable outcome from. You always have the right to self-representation, but the vast majority prefer to have help from those who know the process and navigate it on their behalf. The decision is yours.
Nothing upfront and nothing out of pocket. Our fee comes out of what we recover, agreed in writing before work starts. If we recover nothing, you owe nothing. There's no upfront fee, no out of pocket cost throughout the process, and no hourly billing at any point. Your case has to be reviewed before we know that amount, because details like how many individuals, companies, or trusts owned the property, then there's competing claims. Everything about your case and the fee is explained in detail, verbally and in writing, before your claim process begins.
It depends on everyone involved providing what's needed to prepare a complete file, on the county, since some carry larger workloads and longer processing times than others, on whether anyone else is claiming the same money, and on whether the original owner has passed away. Some claims resolve in a few months. Contested claims and estate claims run longer. All of this gets explained in detail before we start.
Often yes, and it's worth asking early. If you filed probate, we'll tell you what we will need to get you started. If you haven't, we can help. A fifteen minute call tells you where you stand.
Doing nothing is the one choice that guarantees you don't see the money, and the only one losing out is you. Florida law requires these funds to be pooled and invested in top-rated accounts, and the return flows back to the government bodies holding them, right up until the day somebody claims the principal. The principal comes back to the rightful claimant. The interest stays behind, and you are not entitled to it.
We wrote the whole story of where your equity goes and who earns on it while it waits: Where Florida Invests Your Surplus Funds, and the trust itself, FLGIT.
Find Out What Is Waiting in
Liberty County
If a property you owned in Liberty County sold at a foreclosure or tax deed auction, there may be surplus funds waiting in your name. Finding out is free and takes about as long as a coffee break.
The first conversation is free and it takes fifteen minutes. We'll tell you whether the county is holding surplus from your sale, whether the records point to you, what liens or competing claims sit against that money, and what our work on your claim would involve. If there's nothing there, or if what's there would be eaten by liens, we'll tell you that too.
A real person answers the phone. Se Habla Español.
Claim what is yours. Free 15 minute review.
abrahamasset.com
Abraham and Associates Asset Recovery Services LLC, Brickell Avenue, Miami, Florida