Pung v. Isabella County: What the Supreme Court's Home Equity Ruling Means for Florida

The Story Behind the Case

A family bought a home in Isabella County, Michigan, and lived in it for years. After a death in the family, a paperwork dispute over a residential tax exemption produced a disputed bill of roughly $2,200. The county foreclosed over that amount and sold the home at auction for about $76,000, even though the county itself had appraised the property at about $194,400, and the auction buyer resold it soon after for about $195,000. The county kept the disputed amount it said it was owed and paid the auction surplus to the family's estate. The family's fight was over the difference: the roughly $120,000 gap between what the auction produced and what the county said the home was actually worth.

What the Supreme Court Decided

The family argued that compensation should be measured by the home's assessed value, not the discounted price a forced auction produced, and that losing a home worth far more than the debt can amount to an excessive fine. On June 23, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that when a tax sale is fairly conducted, just compensation is measured by the auction sale price rather than the property's assessed or market value. Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Gorsuch, wrote separately to express deep concern about how the outcome treated the family.

How This Builds on Tyler v. Hennepin County

In 2023, in Tyler v. Hennepin County, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the government may not keep more than it is owed when it sells a home for unpaid taxes. That decision settled the core principle: the surplus belongs to the former owner. Pung picked up where Tyler stopped, and answered how that surplus is measured: by what the auction actually produces above the debt.

What This Means for Florida Families

Florida already protects the principle at the heart of these cases. When a property sells at a Florida tax deed sale for more than the taxes and costs owed, that extra money, the surplus, belongs to the former owner and other rightful parties under Florida Statute 197.582. It does not belong to the government. When those funds go unclaimed, they are transferred to state custody, and the owner's right to claim them is preserved under Florida's unclaimed property law.

The harder reality is that this money often sits unclaimed for years, because the people it belongs to never learn it exists. A family moves on after a foreclosure, certain they walked away with nothing, while funds that are rightfully theirs wait in an account they were never told about.

What the Ruling Means for You

The decision leaves Tyler's foundation fully intact: the surplus from a tax sale belongs to the former owner. What Pung settled is the measure. The recoverable amount is what the auction produced above the debt, which makes claiming that surplus, promptly and correctly, the step that determines what a family actually receives. For Florida families, the practical lesson is immediate: the surplus from a Florida tax deed sale is real, documented in court records, and recoverable today.

Recovering What Already Belongs to You

Abraham and Associates exists to reunite families with assets they did not know existed and did not know were theirs. Our process, The Abraham Recovery Method, is built on three steps: we Verify the surplus and your right to it, we File the claim through our Power of Attorney structure with our associated Florida-licensed attorneys, and we Deliver the funds to you.